


A New Departure

by kersenvla



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Bang Chan is Whipped, Concerts, Confessions, Fate & Destiny, Feelings Realization, Fluff and Angst, Found Family ish, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, Kim Seungmin is Whipped, Late Night Conversations, M/M, Mutual Pining, Neighbors, Road Trips, Roommates, Sharing a Bed, Soft Lee Felix (Stray Kids), Stargazing, Strangers to Lovers, Trapped In Elevator, all three ships are getting sort of equal treatment i think, connected by fate, famous person - Freeform, its very sappy as i like to do
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-16 08:48:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 35,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29822406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kersenvla/pseuds/kersenvla
Summary: Looking at the same moon, counting shooting starsEach wish that we put up that day is carried along with our dreamsLet’s try to open the door that was still lockedWe’ll meet again by chance one day, because we have the bond that we madeWhat do three best friends on a road trip, a mechanic and his two upstairs neighbours, and a suddenly famous singer and his bodyguard have in common? That’s right: A wish, a song and perhaps the journey ahead of them.
Relationships: Bang Chan/Han Jisung | Han, Hwang Hyunjin/Kim Seungmin, Lee Felix/Yang Jeongin | I.N
Comments: 30
Kudos: 29





	1. Wish upon a star

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! I am back with another work, a bit of an experimental work, but I hope you guys will enjoy it!  
> This work was partly inspired by Tokyo Girls Style's A New Departure and the translation of any lyrics in this work is my own
> 
> Anyway! this fic is already finished and ready to go, so expect frequent updates
> 
> Enjoy <33

✧BC✧HJ✧JS✧

_ Tap tap. _

Hyunjin opened his eyes and blinked. He turned his head to see Jisung tapping on the backseat window with a bright smile that stood out in the darkness outside. Hyunjin slid open the door of the van and gave his friend a curious look.

“What is it?” 

“Come outside for a bit, Hyunnie.” Jisung didn’t give him much of a choice as he already reached out to take Hyunjin’s hand and pull him out of the van with a big grin. “The stars are really pretty.” 

Hyunjin stumbled over his feet as he followed his brunette friend a little away from the van, which was parked on the side of a long road, near a deserted gas station. It was incredibly dark outside, because there weren’t any streetlights around to light the place up, nor was the gas station properly lit up, and if it wasn’t for Chan’s good eyes they would have definitely missed it. 

Hyunjin had no idea what time it was, but it was probably well into the night, because it had finally become a reasonable temperature outside. A cool breeze blew and it woke Hyunjin up a little from when he had been dozing off in the car. It was nice. 

Jisung stopped when they were about a meter or ten away from the van and the gas station was too dark to see from here. He pointed up and Hyunjin followed his gaze to the sky to see a pitch black canvas dotted with stars, and the longer he looked, the more stars appeared. 

“Woah,” he breathed out, his eyes darting along the pretty night sky, marveling at the amount of stars that were visible without the light pollution.

“Pretty, huh?” Jisung squeezed his hand and Hyunjin could hear the big grin that was probably on the younger’s face right now, but he couldn’t look away from the stars to check. Jisung then let go of his hand. “I’m gonna get Channie.” 

Hyunjin let out a chuckle.  _ Of course, Chan loves the stars. And this is kind of romantic, _ he thought as he tore his gaze away from the night sky to maybe send his friend a smirk, but Jisung was already hurrying away to the gas station. It was also probably way too dark to convey his message through his expression anyway. 

Hyunjin sat down on the asphalt that was still a bit warm from the day, which was nice, because he was already getting kind of chilly with the night breeze blowing on his exposed arms. He leaned back on his hands to look up at the night sky again, but he looked down when he heard footsteps approaching him.

Jisung returned pretty quickly, dragging Chan along with him excitedly as the older snickered, his dimples on full show as he fondly looked at Jisung. Hyunjin couldn’t help but smile at the sight. 

“Come on, slowpokes. Let’s stargaze.” Hyunjin patted the spot next to him and watched as his best friends plopped down on the asphalt and Jisung snatched Hyunjin’s right and Chan’s left arm when he laid down, taking the other two with him until they were lying on the road, hip to hip, and arms intertwined.

“Oh, woah.” Chan let out an awe-induced breath. “That’s beautiful.” 

“Told you guys so.” Jisung grinned and Hyunjin patted his round cheek to praise him, not looking away from the stars. 

A silence fell and only the sound of the three of them breathing could be heard as they admired the night sky. A breeze blew past them and Hyunjin felt Jisung shiver a little as he pulled his two friends impossibly closer to him. Hyunjin then heard some shuffling and when he looked to his side to see what was going on, squinting and staring for a bit because it was so gosh darn dark, he saw that Chan had made his jacket a makeshift blanket. Because Chan was sensible enough to actually wear a light jacket when going outside at night.

“Are you cold, too, Hyunnie?” Chan whispered. 

“Nah—” Hyunjin wanted to answer, but he was cut off by a gasp coming from Chan himself.

“Guys! Look!” The oldest of the trio pointed up into the sky. “A shooting star!” 

Hyunjin’s eyes went wide as he just spotted the trail of twinkling white disappear and the way Jisung gasped told him that he had seen it as well. 

“I wonder how many people around the world saw this same shooting star…” Jisung murmured and somehow Hyunjin felt comforted by that thought. Maybe they weren’t the only three idiots awake at this hour and gazing at the stars. Jisung then unlinked their arms to hold Chan and Hyunjin’s hands instead. “Shall we make a wish?” 

Chan let out a chuckle and Hyunjin thought it would maybe be childish to make a wish, but he shook that thought away quickly. It wasn’t childish. “Okay. Are we saying it out loud?” 

“If you want.” Chan mused, his voice soft and gentle as he marveled at the constellations above him. Hyunjin immediately thought of a wish that hopefully Chan and Jisung could relate to, so he decided to get that out of the way. 

“I wish that we could stay together forever,” he whispered, more to the stars than to his friends, but the way his friends hummed in agreement told him that they had heard him. A smile spread on his face and he felt warm. 

“Me too.” Jisung squeezed their hands. Chan stayed silent, maybe he didn't have anything to wish for, maybe he wished the same and trusted Hyunjin and Jisung to know it, or maybe he had a wish that he didn't feel like sharing right now, or ever. Either way, it was fine. Hyunjin knew that Chan felt the same.

“Okay, I’m getting kind of cold, now.” Hyunjin felt a shiver run through his body and he tried to steal some more of Jisung’s body warmth, but also his back was starting to ache from lying on the sturdy asphalt. He also now remembered why they had stopped here in the first place. “By the way, Channie, is there anything nearby where we can sleep?” 

“The guy at the gas station said that the nearest motel is another hour away.” Chan told him as Hyunjin sat up. He grimaced.  _ Another hour? It’ll almost be morning by then.  _

“So we’re sleeping in the van again?” Jisung stood up as well, keeping Chan’s jacket wrapped around him as he helped Chan up. Hyunjin sighed. It wasn’t that bad, but a car seat definitely wasn’t a bed. He wasn’t going to protest, though, because he wasn’t going to let Chan drive another hour while he could also be sleeping.

“Yeah, if you guys are okay with that.” Chan brushed off his clothes and they made their way back to their kind of crappy, but still beautiful van.

“Of course.” Jisung slid open the door of the van and looked back at his friends before climbing into the backseat and rummaging for a blanket in his backpack. “Same configuration as last time?” 

“I still don’t get how you can sleep all curled up on the tiny backseat.” Hyunjin huffed. He got shivers thinking about having to sleep all cramped like that. He was glad to take the passenger seat and tilt it all the way back to make a makeshift bed, at least he could stretch his legs that way. “But I guess that’s because you’re tiny.” 

Jisung shot him a  _ look _ and Chan snickered. “Hey, Chan! You’re almost as tiny as I am!” The younger pointed an accusing finger, but Chan only laughed louder. Hyunjin also chuckled as he tried to get comfortable on the seat and pulled his blanket over him.

“Don’t worry, it’s not bad to be tiny. It’s cute.” Hyunjin sighed as he gave his friends a smirk as he lay down. 

“ _ You _ are cute, too, Hyunnie.” Chan shot back and Jisung immediately agreed, making gross kissy noises. Hyunjin rolled his eyes and closed them to signal to the others that he would go to sleep now.

“Good night~,” he said. He could still hear Chan and Jisung shuffling around a little, but he hoped that they would go to sleep soon, too. 

“Hey, ‘Sungie?” Chan whispered very softly, so as to not disturb Hyunjin, and Jisung let out a noise in question. “Are you sure that you’re comfortable back there?” 

“Yeah, you know I always curl up when sleeping anyway, it’s fine. Don’t worry about me,” Jisung softly assured their ever-worrying friend. Hyunjin was already dozing off, but he could still hear some shuffling around. “Good night, Channie.”

“Okay, good night.” 

  
  


✧✧✧

  
  


“Oh! Turn up the volume!” Hyunjin exclaimed suddenly as he leaned forward to turn up the volume of the radio, he had the habit of leaning over the console to control the knobs himself, because he was the pickiest in regards to the settings of the air conditioning too. 

“This song again?” Jisung didn’t mind the song, but they had been hearing it on the radio almost nonstop for the past week, no matter where they were. It wasn’t an artist Jisung recognized, but he had a nice voice. 

“Yeah, it’s a good song! Don’t you guys agree?” Hyunjin was already swinging and softly singing along to the music in the backseat. 

“Yeah, I like it.” Chan agreed as he grinned back at Hyunjin. “Don’t know the artist, though.” 

They jammed along with the song for a while, until it finished and another song played that they didn’t know. Suddenly Jisung thought he heard something that sounded like weird car noises and he tensed.  _ Oh shit.  _ He flicked his eyes to his side where Chan was sitting. “Uhh… Chan? The car isn’t supposed to make this sound, is it?” 

“What sound?” Chan asked and Jisung reached forward to turn down the volume of the radio again. They listened and there was definitely something off.

“Oh. Nope, this isn’t good, I think.” Chan pressed his lips together and looked behind him to check if he saw something behind the car.

“What do I do? Do I stop the car?” Jisung was already looking around for a place to stop. They were pretty close to a city, according to the signs, but it would probably still take a while until they would actually reach civilization, if the amount of cars around were any indication. 

“Yeah, let’s stop for a sec.” Chan pointed to a place where Jisung could park the van safely to see what was causing the sound, so the three of them got out of the car and walked around it to see if anything was wrong. 

“I don’t see anything wrong? I mean, I only see the  _ sun _ reflecting in my  _ eyes _ , but otherwise...” Hyunjin brought a hand through his hair and placed his other hand on his hip, squinting because of the way the van reflected the sunlight. Jisung quickly grabbed his and Hyunjin’s sunglasses and tossed them to his friend. 

“Here, dummy.” Jisung teased him and Hyunjin rolled his eyes, but Jisung spotted a smile tugging at his lips anyway. 

“I don’t see anything, either.” Chan sighed and walked over to the front of the van to open the hood. Hyunjin and Jisung followed him to watch over his shoulder. “I don’t really know what I’m looking at, but there doesn’t seem to be anything fatally wrong here either.” 

“Is that— No, that looks fine. I don’t know.” Hyunjin shrugged and Jisung grimaced. He couldn’t help but feel a bit responsible for not having heard the sound earlier. He had been driving, after all. 

“Let’s rest a little and enjoy the view out here, let the van rest a little or something, maybe that helps.” Hyunjin stretched his arms above his head and reached into the car to grab his cap and walk over into the grassy area at the side of the road, picking out a spot with enough shade where he plopped down and waved Chan and Jisung to come over. 

_ Shouldn’t we get someone to help, though…?  _ Jisung thought, but he was pulled from his thoughts as he felt a hand on his arm. He turned to see Chan looking at him with raised eyebrows, silently asking him if he was coming. Jisung wanted to smile and nod and come along with him, but Chan’s expression shifted to worried and Jisung knew that he had caught on to the bad feeling Jisung had in his stomach.

“Are you worried about the car?” He saw right through Jisung, but what did Jisung expect from someone who has known him for basically his whole life, who he has spent the last couple of months traveling around with, never being too far away from each other. Jisung didn’t answer, but he saw that Chan knew what that meant.

“Hey guys! Everything alright? Are you coming?” Hyunjin called over and Jisung just wanted to go over there when he felt two arms wrap around his waist and hoist him up. He let out an embarrassing squeak when Chan almost  _ threw _ him over his shoulder and began running through the grass. 

“ _ Chan _ !” Jisung choked out as he held on for dear life onto Chan’s back and arms, not knowing if he should laugh or scream. He knew that Chan wouldn’t let him fall, but Chan was also a fast runner, so he feared for his life nonetheless.

They came to a stop in front of a laughing Hyunjin and Chan put Jisung down on the ground, laughing too as he ruffled Jisung’s hair, who tried to shoot him an angry look. Chan’s cheeks were adorably pink from exertion and the heat and his dimples appeared as his eyes scrunched up in laughter. It all made Jisung’s heart rate spike for some reason, and he forgot all about his earlier worries.

“Sorry, ‘Sungie.” Chan let out a chuckle and tried to give Jisung a hug, but Jisung dodged with a pout, feeling like Chan would be even more worried if he would feel Jisung’s rapid heartbeat. Chan didn't give up trying to hug him until he got his way. “You didn’t break the van, it’s not your fault!” 

Jisung sighed and let Chan hug him, feeling embarrassed as Hyunjin kept on laughing, but he knew how to make Chan let go. He stuck out his lips and tried to give his friend a kiss and Chan gasped in between his laughter and tried to back off without letting go, but he didn't manage to escape from Jisung’s lips planting a smooch on his cheek. 

Chan immediately let go, his ears growing red, but his smile remained on his face. Jisung felt incredibly warm inside, and it wasn’t because of the warm weather, he thought, this was a nicer kind of warm. Chan just made him feel warm, especially whenever he smiled. It was a sight that Jisung couldn’t get enough of, but then again, who didn’t want to watch their best friend smile? Certainly if you were lucky enough to have a best friend with such a pretty smile as Chan, anyone would want to see it all day every day. ( _ Right? _ )

“Oh, you know what? I’ll get some food out of the van and a blanket so we can have a little picnic!” Chan immediately stood up again and walked away, making both Jisung and Hyunjin laugh. Jisung watched him go, but the butterflies in his stomach weren’t leaving with him.  _ Wait… Am I…? _

“Woah, where did he get all that energy from all of a sudden?” Hyunjin put a hand in front of his mouth to cover up his snickers and then he turned to Jisung. “Is it all because of you?” 

“H… What?” Jisung was kind of in the middle of a realization here, so it took a while before it registered in his brain what Hyunjin was saying. He turned to his friend with a frown. Hyunjin laughed even harder.

“You're the energizer, usually, but now you seem kinda out of it.” He cackled and put a hand on Jisung’s shoulder. “Are you okay there, buddy?” 

Was he okay? His heart was bouncing in his chest as if he had just sprinted at full force for a whole minute and his hands were clammy and his stomach was flipping around, but the longer he thought about it—  _ it _ , meaning having feelings for his best friend for god only knows how long already— the more he felt at peace with it, because he realized that it was actually nice to have feelings for someone like Chan. 

He kind of felt like he somehow  _ knew _ already, that he had feelings for his best friend, but somehow it only really hit him at this moment. That didn’t mean he was going to tell him. Not yet. That could make things incredibly awkward if Chan didn’t feel the same, because they couldn’t really get away from each other easily. 

“Yeah, I’m okay.” Jisung answered with a small smile and he thought about telling Hyunjin about his realization, but maybe Hyunjin even already knew, because he was smirking as if he was seeing right through Jisung right now. The taller opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, Chan came rushing back, still with a beautiful smile on his face.

“Channie! Does your van making weird noises make you happy or something?” Jisung couldn’t hold back a grin of himself when Chan laid down the blanket and the food. 

“No, but you guys were smiling and  _ you guys _ make me happy.” Chan cooed at them and Jisung and Hyunjin rolled their eyes simultaneously. 

They ate their food and Jisung forgot his worries completely, and instead his mind kept going back to Chan and his new realization. The more he thought about it the more he realized that he had been feeling this way for a pretty long time already, but now that he knew, like really  _ knew _ , about his feelings, they seemed to be even stronger. 

A soft breeze picked up and Jisung just enjoyed how pretty Chan looked, his sun bleached curls dancing around in the wind and his skin tanned because of them being outside so much these past months. His skin tingled whenever Chan leaned on his shoulder while laughing at something Hyunjin or he said. And if Hyunjin caught him staring at Chan, he didn’t say anything about it.

When they finished eating and decided to go back, Jisung felt a hand on his shoulder and he saw Chan catch up to him. Jisung turned his head to Chan and the latter gave him a soft look that made Jisung feel nice. “Hey, ‘Sungie? You okay to drive? Or should we…”

Chan leant closer to Jisung, a smirk appearing on his face, but Jisung only focused on not combusting when he felt the older’s breath on his cheek near his ear. “Or should we make Hyunjinnie drive?” 

“I hear my name!” Hyunjin called and they immediately burst out in laughter again, leaning onto each other for support. 

“That means you’ll drive!” Jisung called out between laughs, squeezing Chan’s arms that were around his shoulders. 

“Whatever~” Hyunjin turned around and leaned against the van, smiling fondly as he watched his two friends approach. His grin only grew wider as he flicked his eyes between the two of them and Jisung knew that he was onto him. Hyunjin chuckled again and got into the car. “You two can chill in the back together if you want, I'll drive us to the city to get the van checked out.” 

Chan seemed to want that too, so the two of them climbed into the backseat of the van and sat next to each other, knees lightly touching even though it was actually too warm in the car for that. The weird sound was still there, but it couldn’t be that bad, right? Either way, Jisung’s mind was easily kept off of the sound as he only thought about— you guessed it— Chan. 

He turned his head and saw Chan with his head propped up on his hand and his elbow on the windowsill as he hummed along to whatever was playing on the radio. The sun was shining through the glass and illuminated Chan’s features, his eyelashes casting a soft shadow on his cheekbones as he squinted slightly against the light. He was beautiful.

  
  
  


✧MH✧FL✧JI✧

  
  
  
  


“Hey, man.” 

Minho jumped and whipped his head up to see the dark outline of his two upstairs neighbours grin down at him. Minho waved at them with a little smile from where he was sitting on the metal emergency stairs that were attached to the side of their apartment building next to their windows. Minho could smell that the roommates had just eaten now that their window was open, the smell of dinner mixing with the dry summer air. 

It was pretty late in the evening to eat, but maybe the smell had just stuck in the apartment until they opened this window just now.

“Hi, guys.”

It was a dark and clear, but still pretty warm night, it never got  _ that _ cold in the city, the asphalt re-radiating the light from the summer sun as heat at night. Minho usually sat on the stairs to relax at night, whenever he couldn’t sleep, or when he  _ could _ sleep, but felt a little lonely, or when he just wanted to get some fresh air. He would usually just watch the cars drive by in the distance, or the occasional car right under him, the neon lights of the bustling city center that he could just see from his floor. 

The metal of the stairway clinked as Jeongin and Felix made their way down to him. Jeongin leaned back against the railing and took a deep breath, while Felix sat down next to Minho. They would often come sit with Minho during these nights, making him feel less lonely. Sometimes they would chat, sometimes not.

“Smells nice, what did you eat?” Minho asked them.

“Lixie made his special pasta dish. It was super yummy.” Jeongin smiled and Minho let out a half breath half chuckle.  _ As expected, Felix is spoiling Jeongin as he does best. _

“When will  _ you _ cook for Lix, Innie?” Minho wiggled his eyebrows and grinned at the younger, who just huffed and crossed his arms. He spotted Jeongin’s cheeks colouring a slight pink, and it was not because of the neon lights downstairs that cast a colourful glow on the lower levels of their apartment building.

“I  _ will _ , but Felix likes cooking. And I’m too clumsy,” he explained and Felix snickered. 

“That’s right, I like cooking,” he agreed and Minho rolled his eyes. 

“You like spoiling Jeongin, too.” He pointed out.

“I like spoiling my  _ friends _ . You know you can come over and I’ll cook for you just as easily.” The boy corrected him and Minho knew that, but he liked teasing his upstairs neighbours. They were very precious to him, as they had been very welcoming when he first moved into the apartment building and had missed his cats.  _ Stupid no pets rule. _ Felix had brought him cookies and brownies and Jeongin had brightened Minho’s days with his cute and permanent smile. 

“You wanna go to the roof and see if we can see more stars?” Felix suggested, his eyes flicking up. Sometimes, when Minho felt brave enough (aka, when he was with neighbours slash friends), they would go up to the roof and watch the sunset, or the night sky. Their building was tall enough that they were high above the streetlights and they could sometimes see a pretty sky.

“Sure.” Minho let himself get helped up by the freckled boy and they ascended the stairs and climbed the last part up to the roof of their building. He made sure to not look down, because he knew that when he did it would take a while for him to calm down again. And he would rather not be reminded of the fact that the roof was pretty high up. Heights were not his friend.

So he immediately lay down and looked up at the stars. Those were far away enough for him not to realize that he was a lot higher than the ground right now. Felix and Jeongin soon joined him in lying down and looking up at the night sky.

“Look, guys, it’s Felix’s face!” Jeongin giggled and Minho barked out a laugh.

“You say that every time!” Felix exclaimed and Minho imagined his friend’s face growing redder and redder beneath his ‘constellations’.

“Minho still thinks it's funny.” Jeongin snickered and Minho was sure that Felix also secretly thought it was still funny (and maybe also a bit romantic…?). And otherwise, it probably wasn’t  _ unpleasant _ to have your face compared to the night sky, even if it was only the night sky in a slightly light-polluted city. You could still see a decent amount of stars, Minho thought, since they were mostly on the outskirts of the city and they were high up.

Suddenly, a breeze blew past them and Minho felt Felix shiver next to him. They probably should have probably brought a jacket, but it hadn’t been windy at all tonight. Maybe now that they were on the roof they weren’t protected by the tall city buildings anymore. Felix snuggled a little closer to Minho and the way Jeongin let out a soft squeak told him that Felix also pulled him a little closer to him, so that the three of them were all snuggled up.

“Guys, look!” Felix let out a gasp and pointed his finger up into the sky. “A shooting star!” 

Minho squinted his eyes and just saw the faint glimmer of the shooting star in the sky.  _ Woah… _

“That is so cool!” Jeongin breathed out. Minho looked to his side and saw that the youngest of their friends had wrapped his arm around Felix as he watched the sky in wonder. Minho felt a wave of fondness wash over him and he gently placed his arm over Jeongin’s. 

“Let’s make a wish.” He whispered out softly, even though he didn’t really know what he could wish for right now, the idea just popped into his head suddenly, so he suggested it. He was honestly pretty happy right now, he liked being a mechanic, and his apartment was nice, close, but not too close, to the city center, with nice neighbours and spacious enough to work out or dance in. 

“I don’t know what to wish.” Jeongin said.

“I wish for a happy life and happy friends.” Felix grinned up at the sky and Jeongin gasped a  _ ‘oh no, that’s a good one’ _ and Minho guessed it was a pretty good wish. It was also a pretty ambitious wish, but it was a good one nonetheless. 

“I’m going to aim a little lower and wish for some more work to do. Summer’s always a little slow.” Minho said and Jeongin laughed.

“You wish for people’s cars to break down more?!” When Jeongin put it like  _ that _ , it didn’t sound like a good wish anymore. 

“I just want people to come for a check up or something, of course I don’t want their cars to  _ break down _ .” Minho mumbled. Now he felt bad about his wish, but maybe he could still send the universe a message that he didn’t  _ want _ more cars to break down, he just wanted to have a little more to do and maybe see some new types of cars every once in a while. 

A comfortable silence fell over the three of them. This was a nice way to spend the night, before he would go to sleep. The night sky made Minho feel calm and it made him feel like he was somehow part of something bigger, or that things were more connected than they seemed sometimes. Because most of these stars were visible in a lot of places and being connected by the sky still meant that you were connected in some way, right?

  
  


✧✧✧

  
  


_ Tap tap. _

Jeongin whipped his head to the familiar sound of someone tapping on the window. Felix was busy in the kitchen making breakfast, and he probably didn’t hear the sound because he was listening to a random playlist, so Jeongin stood up and made his way over to the window in his pajama shorts and t-shirt to open it.

“Good morning.” He greeted Minho who was already fully dressed, because of course he was. 

“Good morning.” Minho returned and he looked past him into the apartment. “Oi, Lix! Smells great! Can I join you guys for breakfast?”

Jeongin covered his ears to save himself from Minho-induced hearing damage. That also caused him to not hear Felix’s answer, but he didn’t need to, he already knew that Felix would accept him and the way Minho hopped into their living room confirmed his thoughts. 

They both made their way to the kitchen where Felix was making delicious egg fried rice. Just as Felix greeted Minho a new song began playing and Felix gasped softly.

“Yes! I love this song.” He turned the volume up one notch and began swaying in front of the kitchen counters. Jeongin recognized the voice but not the song, it was from an artist that had recently released a song that according to Felix was blowing up the charts and Felix really liked the song too, so the artist had immediately made their way into Felix’s playlists. 

“This is not ‘ _ Stay with me _ ’, is it?” Jeongin informed. He only knew the name of the recent title track, but this sounded really nice as well.

“This is ‘ _ A New Departure _ ’, the lyrics are so nice!” Felix answered as he turned off the stove, his hips still shaking along to the song. “I think ‘ _ Stay with me _ ’ will come by sooner or later as well.”

“Sounds nice.” Minho commented as he lightly bopped his head along with the rhythm. 

They ate breakfast together while Felix’s playlist sounded softly in the background of their chatter. It was Minho’s day off today, but Felix and Jeongin had to go to work soon, so they had to keep it short, but Jeongin had a feeling they would see each other tonight as well. 

  
  


And he was right. After Jeongin had come home and had eaten dinner with Felix, they heard the familiar clinking of metal coming from outside. Minho had probably just hopped outside for another evening of looking out to the city. Jeongin understood the habit, the city was quite pretty at night. 

“You wanna join Minho again, or did you have something else to do tonight?” Felix asked as if he was reading Jeongin’s mind, but the boy had probably also heard the sound of the stairwell earlier. 

“It’s kinda stuffy in the apartment, so I don’t mind going out for a bit.” Jeongin answered and they climbed out of the window to join Minho on the stairs. The night wasn’t as clear as yesterday, but it was still a nice temperature, way better than inside, where the heat of the day still lingered. 

Minho greeted them with a small smile as always, this time he was standing up, leaning on the railing of the stairway and looking out to the city. It was only twilight, but it was getting dark already. “Hey guys, how was your day?” 

“Not that eventful today, no stoners come to the convenience store during the day, usually.” Felix shrugged and went to stand next to Minho together with Jeongin. “Jeongin did have a more eventful day, though.” 

“Yeah.” Jeongin agreed and Minho turned his head to look at him, his expression neutral, but curious. “My coworkers were all going insane because there’s some musician coming to town who’s a pretty big deal and all. I didn’t hear who, because honestly, I don’t know if it’s all set yet and I didn’t want to get my hopes up.” 

“Cool. Are you sure that you’re not just too low in the hierarchy to get the privilege of knowing which artist might come to the concert hall?” Minho commented and Jeongin sighed and gave him a playful push to the shoulder. Minho snickered and held his hands up in defense. “Kidding! Kidding.”

“What about you, Min?” Felix asked him, looking down at something, Jeongin followed his gaze to see a car that was approaching their street. Minho didn't answer as his eyes also followed the surprisingly loud vehicle, which was driving at a snail's pace along the street. His expression contorted.

“That doesn't sound good.” He mumbled. “Maybe they should—” 

_ Bam! _

Just at that moment, the car stopped and slowly three defeated looking figures got out of the vehicle. They were talking to each other, but it didn’t seem like they knew what to do. 

“RIP.” Jeongin commented and he saw Minho nod in the corners of his eyes, the three of them kept a close eye on the three down on the street, but after a minute or two, Minho pushed himself off of the railing and started walking down the metal stairs.

“I can’t watch this anymore,” he said, more to himself than to Jeongin and Felix. Jeongin shared a look with the latter and they decided to follow Minho down the steps and across the street to the three boys with the van.

“—we can’t even, like, call someone to help us anymore,” the tallest of the three sulked as he slumped against the vehicle. They were all looking pretty bummed out, which was understandable in a situation like this. A boy with curls noticed Minho first.

“Car troubles?” Minho asked and he got the attention of the rest too. The third boy, a smaller boy with round cheeks nodded at Minho, who walked around the car. “I can take a quick look at it.”

“R-Really?” The curly haired boy blinked in confusion, but Minho kept examining the van. He paused and scratched his neck. “That would be great, actually. We don’t want to burden you with anything, though.” 

“It’s fine.” Minho replied simply as he crouched to look under the car. 

“Minho works at the garage here, he likes this kind of stuff.” Jeongin told them, gesturing at his friend. “This is his thing.”

“Oh, that’s great, because we couldn’t find out what was wrong with the car ourselves.” The tall one with the ponytail said. “It suddenly began making weird noises and the faster we drove the worse it got, so we drove slowly to not risk breaking the car, but it’s gotten late without us realizing.” 

“Do you have somewhere to be?” Felix asked them, but the guy with the round cheeks shook his head.

“Nah, we’re just travelling around, but now that the van is broken, we can’t really do that.” He explained, his expression a little sad. Jeongin felt bad for them.

“I’m sorry to tell you, but your car needs some work. The garage is closed now, but I can get you guys towed in there tomorrow morning.” Minho told the rest as he closed the hood of the van and wrote down the address and phone number of the garage. The three travellers sighed and slumped.

“Poor vannie…” The round cheeked guy patted the vehicle and the curly haired guy turned to Minho.

“Thank you. My name is Chan, by the way.” He introduced himself, looking at Jeongin and Felix too, before gesturing at the two others. “These are Jisung and Hyunjin.”

“Hi, Minho,” Minho said. “These are my friends and neighbours, Jeongin and Felix.”

“We live up there.” Felix pointed up to their apartments and Jeongin found it admirable how Felix and Minho were already so inviting to the three strangers, although they do seemed kind, so he did understand their kindness in a way. “Feel free to come by if you need anything. Do you have anywhere to stay?” 

“No, but that’s fine, we’ll find something. Thank you, again.” Chan waved him off. There weren't really any places to sleep near them that were still open at this hour, though, but Jeongin didn’t know if they should invite them to stay at their apartment after they’ve only spoken to each other for a minute. 

“Oh, are you sure? There aren’t any hotels nearby that you can stay at last minute, though.” Minho said it out loud. “I have a spare bed and a couch in my apartment, if you want.” 

“Really?” Hyunjin’s eyes widened. He looked at his friends with hopeful eyes, but Chan didn’t see him.

“We’ll sleep in the van, it’s fine,” he assured Minho, but Hyunjin tapped his shoulder and raised his eyebrows. Chan sighed and stepped closer to his friend before whispering: “I know that your legs will be cramped, but we have a lot of luggage and stuff. We can’t do that.”

“I don’t mind. I have enough space,” Minho said and the three travellers shared a look and eventually accepted Minho’s offer. “Great, you guys can stay as long as you want, I guess. Because the car may take some time, seeing the state the tires are in as well.” 

Chan scratched his neck bashfully. “We’ve travelled a lot. Thank you, for everything again.” 

“No problem, just don’t trash the place. Let’s go.” 

  
  
  


✧CB✧SM✧

  
  
  


_ “Kim Seungmin?!”  _

Seungmin held his breath and tried to be as quiet as possible as he listened to the footsteps receding away from him. He shouldn’t be hiding in the bathroom, but he wanted a break for just  _ two minutes _ . He sighed and slumped against the wall, he didn’t know why they were looking for him, because he  _ just _ got inside, but he already wanted a break, everyone was already all over him from the get go and he wasn’t used to it all yet.

He heard footsteps approaching him again and he tensed.

_ “Seungmin, we need you to meet your bodyguard!”  _

_ A bodyguard? That’s… good?  _ Seungmin hesitantly unlocked the door and walked outside, looking at his manager with an innocent look. “Sorry, I was just in the bathroom.” 

“Right, that’s fine,” he said with a sigh, before mumbling under his breath  _ ‘we’ve looked there, though’ _ . He motioned Seungmin to come with him and Seungmin followed. 

“You know, if you’re having trouble with things, you can ask for help,” Wonpil said and Seungmin just nodded. He knew that Wonpil had good intentions, but he really didn’t want to talk to his manager about the stuff he was struggling with right now. And besides, he just needed to get used to things, nothing too bad. 

They entered a room where someone stood that wasn’t part of their staff.  _ Or is he? Is he my bodyguard?  _ Seungmin recognized the boy vaguely, but he couldn’t quite place it. He was short and buff, so he guessed that it wouldn’t be weird for him to be his bodyguard.

“Seeing your sudden rise in popularity we thought it was good to hire a bodyguard, so… Meet your bodyguard, Seo Changbin. Seo Changbin, this is Kim Seungmin.” Wonpil introduced them and Seungmin froze, while Changbin bowed. 

“Wait,  _ Seo Changbin _ ?” Seungmin gaped at the shorter boy, who was  _ way _ broader than he remembered him. “From high school?!” 

“Oh! Right.” Changbin pointed at Seungmin and chuckled. “Hi, long time no see.” 

Seungmin felt kind of relieved that his bodyguard was an old friend from high school. They had been pretty good friends, considering that Changbin was a year above him, but they’ve gotten out of touch over the years. It was refreshing to have a familiar face around other than Wonpil, though. 

“Oh, you guys know each other,” Wonpil commented. “That’s good. I did plan in some time for you guys to get to know each other and stuff later this evening, but right  _ now _ we gotta plan the performance in the city… what was the name…?”

Wonpil was already walking away and Seungmin guessed he expected them to follow him. He shared a look with Changbin and they followed his manager.

  
  
  


Seungmin hoped that Changbin wouldn’t jump onto the whole  _ ‘my friend is famous’  _ thing that some of his ‘friends’ had started. That was annoying. He was glad that he was succeeding and that people liked his music, but it was all so sudden and he had to get used to all of the attention he was suddenly getting from everyone. 

Everyone wanted to talk to him all of a sudden and everyone suddenly felt like they had something to say about him and his songs, even the older ones. 

“So… You come here more often?” Changbin asked after a while. It was pretty late at night already, but Seungmin’s schedules had all taken longer than expected, so his free time had been pushed back. He had taken Changbin to the roof of the studio, it was a place he had found when he was overwhelmed by the stress that being a singer brought sometimes and he had been spending time a lot more often here lately.

“Sometimes.” Seungmin answered simply before he turned to face Changbin as they sat down on the gravelly rooftop. “Why did you become a bodyguard?” 

“Uhm…” Changbin thought for a moment. “I guess I just want to protect people. And I like music.” 

That was a pretty good answer, Seungmin thought, so he hummed to acknowledge him. Changbin gave him a sheepish smile. “I heard your song,  _ ‘Stay with me’ _ . I really like it. It’s a great song. It’s good that the charts acknowledge that.” 

“Thank you.” Seungmin nodded and tried out a smile, but the way Changbin’s expression didn’t change told him that he wasn’t fooled. Changbin opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again. Seungmin raised his eyebrows in curiosity at him.

“Do you… No, look, I know that you’re probably not happy about getting a bodyguard—” Changbin began, but Seungmin cut him off.

“That’s not it.” He didn’t want Changbin to get the wrong idea, he was actually pretty happy to get a bodyguard, as far as he could be happy about that. 

“Okay, well, let me rephrase that.” Changbin tried again. “I mean, it’s never good to  _ need _ a bodyguard. It’s not fun to need protection from people trying to get into your personal space. But I just want you to know that I’m here to protect you and not to involve myself in any other business.” 

“You’re… You’re right. Uhm, thank you.” Seungmin didn’t want to make Changbin feel like Seungmin was kind of grumpy because of  _ him _ , not at all. It was because of everything else. “I appreciate that a lot. I’m just getting used to my sudden rise in fame, so I apologize in advance if I’m ever difficult about that, but I’m looking forward to working with you.” 

“Me too.” Changbin smiled now and Seungmin mirrored it. He then patted his bodyguards arm and lied down before motioning him to do the same.

“Let’s look at the stars for a moment and then we can go home.” Seungmin said and pointed up to the sky. He didn’t expect Changbin to follow him, but he did. “Sorry for keeping you around so late, though.” 

“It’s fine.” The boy assured him. “I’m more of a night person anyway.” 

They watched the stars for a moment in silence before they started catching up with each other for a bit. Changbin had been a bodyguard for some other celebrities, but that hadn’t worked out too well. Seungmin told him about his road to being a musician, it was hard work, but it paid off, and he had kind of been at the right place at the right time. 

A short silence fell and a soft breeze blew past them, making Seungmin shiver a little. They could see the stars pretty well from up here, which was impressive considering they were in a city. 

“Wait, look! A shooting star.” Changbin suddenly gasped and Seungmin looked up at the night sky to see the faint trail left behind by the shooting star. 

_Looking at the same moon, counting shooting stars._ _Each wish that we put up that day is carried along with our dreams._

“Does that mean we get a wish?” Seungmin couldn’t help but ask. Maybe Changbin would think it was childish, but it couldn’t hurt to wish for something every once in a while. 

Changbin hummed affirmatively, though. “I wish that things will work out this time.” He whispered, but Seungmin heard it. He silently promised Changbin that he would do his best to help his wish come to fullfilment and he guessed that he would say his wish out loud, too. 

“I wish that I’ll be able to handle this situation and make music for a long time.” Seungmin whispered. 

_ Let’s try to open the door that was still locked. We’ll meet again by chance one day, because we have the bond that we made.  _

  
  
  


✧ _ End of chapter 1 _ ✧

  
  
  



	2. Is there something special about this person?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You know what? Maybe I can make him feel better, Hyunjin thought to himself. Otherwise he can just tell me to fuck off or something. So he turned himself around to face the stall and spoke.
> 
> “So, uhh… Are you okay?” He asked. And then he waited for an answer, but it was silent. Maybe the guy didn’t want to talk about it. But just as Hyunjin wanted to give up and leave him alone, the guy spoke up.
> 
> “Why do you ask?” He asked softly. 
> 
> “I was just wondering."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the first meeting of two particular characters ;)) ft. convenience store bathrooms and garages
> 
> enjooy!!

  
  


✧CB✧SM✧

  
  
  


It was exhausting, having people around him  _ all the damn time _ . He wasn’t anxious in crowds, he wasn’t bad with strangers— the opposite, actually— he didn’t get exhausted from dealing with people all day, but that was  _ only _ true when the situation concerned a decent amount of people, and not  _ hundreds _ . 

He had just arrived in another city, and people had found out about that after an hour or two, so when he wanted to go outside to take a walk—  _ with Changbin _ , because Wonpil insisted— he was flooded with people approaching him, asking him if he was really Kim Seungmin and if they could take a picture with him. 

He thought he would be nice and quickly pose for a picture or two, but he should have known that once he would take one picture, literally  _ every _ person in a two kilometer radius would want to take a picture with him. 

He shouldn’t have tried to take a walk in the literal city center. Of a city he was going to perform in nonetheless. 

“Guys, guys, Seungmin has taken enough pictures for today, please step away.” Changbin tried to take control of the situation, but there were so many people who were speaking through each other, trying to convince him to let them have their picture or whatever they wanted. 

This was the first time in Changbin’s two days of officially working for him that he actually had to handle a situation like this, so he didn’t blame Changbin for the fact that the crowd wasn’t really listening to him. He was doing a pretty good job at distracting them a bit with his loud voice, though.

Seungmin really wanted to just take a look at the city, but he guessed that he should have prepared it better. While Changbin was busy trying to calm the crowd, Seungmin leaned close to him and whispered  _ “Sorry, Bin,” _ before he turned around and  _ ran _ .

It didn’t take long before people noticed that he had started to run away and some even started following him.  _ Ugh…! Why? _ Seungmin pitied himself for a second as he ran and ran, away from the city center, taking every turn he saw in the hope that people would give up trying to follow him.

He was glad to hear that after a minute or three the footsteps were gone, but he still didn’t stop running for a while, even though he was incredibly warm and incredibly sweaty right now.  _ Gosh, I’m sorry Changbin,  _ he thought as he saw that he was completely lost. He had never been in this place before, and he hadn’t been keeping track of where he was going at all.

He still couldn’t risk just walking out in the open without Changbin near him. Maybe there was some store around where he could call Changbin and/or his manager in peace, so he looked around the place, until he saw someone who he  _ swore _ had just been chasing him. 

_ Fuck. _

He looked around in slight panic,  _ luckily they haven’t spotted me yet _ , until he saw a convenience store.  _ Those always have bathrooms! _ He took a little sprint and dashed inside, startling the poor employee behind the counter, who regarded him with wide eyes.

“Uhh, how can I help—” The employee started, his eyes were still wide.

“Where’s the bathroom?!” Seungmin ran to the counter and put his hands on it, giving the employee an urgent look. He was probably looking like a crazy person, all sweaty and out of breath. Thank goodness that there was air conditioning here. 

“Oh, uhh— Just over there—” He pointed to the back of the store and before he could finish his sentence, Seungmin dashed away towards the bathroom and hid himself in a stall. 

He let out a breath and leaned against the wall, calming himself down and letting the adrenaline fade while shaking his shirt to let some air through. He felt pretty guilty that he just left Changbin behind, but he was also pretty sure that no one would try to do anything to him.  _ Right? _

Seungmin pulled out his phone and dialed Changbin’s number.  _ Thank goodness Wonpil told me to save it and put him on speed dial. _ He should give his manager more credit, sometimes. He may be empty headed sometimes, but usually he took good care of Seungmin. 

_ “Oh my  _ gosh _ , Kim Seungmin!”  _ Changbin answered the phone immediately.  _ “Where did you go?! Are you okay?”  _

“I’m so sorry for leaving you behind, but I  _ had _ to get out of there.” Seungmin breathed out, keeping his voice down. “I’m in a convenience store somewhere outside of the city center. In a bathroom stall.”

He heard Changbin sigh.  _ “Okay _ —  _ Wonpil told me about you and bathrooms _ — _ Just _ — _ I don’t want to scold you or anything, but I really think I can do a better job if we stay together.” _

“You’re right. I know. I didn’t handle this situation particularly well, but this won’t happen again.” Seungmin sighed too. Now really hadn’t been the best time for his natural urge to defy anything anyone told him to make an appearance. It became silent, only Changbin’s footsteps sounding through the speaker. Until they stopped, too.

_ “Wait.”  _ His bodyguard said.  _ “Where the heck is this convenience store? What is it called?”  _

“Uhh…” Seungmin tried to remember, but he honestly didn’t pay attention. Whoops. 

_ “Which way did you go?”  _

“No idea.” 

_ “Kim Seungmin!”  _ Changbin exclaimed and Seungmin laughed as he imagined the shorter boy all annoyed with him. He didn’t sound too angry, though. He was glad for that. 

_ “Can you tell me anything about where _ — _ ” _ Changbin began, but just at that moment, Seungmin heard the door to the bathroom open and he inhaled sharply as he heard quick footsteps approach the stalls.  _ What do I do now? Pretend to pee?  _

_ “Seungmin, are you even listening to me?”  _ Changbin was still speaking, but Seungmin didn’t dare to answer him. His heart was bouncing in his chest in fear.  _ What if someone followed me here? _

Seungmin saw the pair of shoes dash past his stall and get in the stall next to him. He could hear the zipping of a zipper and then the sound of ‘water’ running.  _ Oh, thank goodness.  _

_ “Okay, Kim, if you’re not going to answer me, I’ll find you myself!”  _ Changbin hung up and Seungmin guessed that was fine. He didn’t have anything to tell him other than that he turned a lot of corners to get here. And he didn't want to speak right now. 

_ “Phew! That’s better.”  _ The guy in the stall next to him breathed out and Seungmin couldn’t help but snort, which caused the other to gasp dramatically.  _ “Jesus, that scared me… Sorry.”  _

“Don’t apologize.” Seungmin giggled. He heard the sound of a zipper and flushing of the toilet before the person stepped out of the stall to wash his hands and dry them. He thought that he would leave after that, but the shoes didn’t move.

_ “So, uhh… Are you okay?” _ He asked, his voice strangely gentle. 

_ Huh? _

  
  
  


✧BC✧HJ✧JS✧

  
  
  


“Wake up sleepy heads! Felix has brought breakfast!” 

Suddenly the room became a lot brighter, Chan noticed, even with his eyes closed. He heard Jisung softly let out a sigh next to him and he felt Jisung disappear from where he had been a bit squished together with Chan on a pretty narrow twin bed while Hyunjin was enjoying the sofa bed all by himself. Their taller friend had insisted that he would take the sofa bed by himself so that he could stretch himself all out at night. 

“Come on, guys. I have to go to work soon. With  _ your _ van.” Minho clapped his hands together a couple of times to hurry them up.

“Yeah, yeah. Sorry. We’ll come.” Jisung said and Chan felt a hand pat his cheek and he groaned, blinking his eyes open against the bright summer sunlight. He forced himself to wake up and he was greeted by Jisung’s cute bed head, his eyes still a little small and his hair sticking up, but probably not worse than Chan’s own hair.

“Good morning, I like your hair.” Jisung snickered as Chan sat up and he felt a little embarrassed, so he tried to flatten his curls a little bit. He then saw that Minho was still in the room and felt a blush creep up his neck. 

“Do you guys have any tips on how to get your friend awake, by the way? He keeps falling asleep.” Minho looked at them sheepishly as he pointed a thumb back at the living room. 

“Nope, he’s hopeless.” Jisung shook his head. “We’ll push him off the bed later, don’t worry.” 

Minho let out a laugh and nodded before leaving the room.  _ “Wake up, there’s food!”  _

Chan and Jisung quickly got up and got dressed. Chan eyed his friend to ask him how he had slept, but to his surprise, Jisung was already looking at him with a look that Chan couldn’t quite grasp. The younger quickly looked away and Chan needed a moment to collect himself before he could speak.

“Did you sleep alright?” He couldn’t tear his eyes away from Jisung for some reason, studying the way his cheeks were coloured slightly pink from the sun shining right onto his face through the window and highlighting his soft and round features. He knew that Jisung was pretty, but at times like these it really hit him hard. He was beautiful. 

“Yeah I did.” A small smile appeared on Jisung’s face and Chan’s heart soared like it always would when Jisung would smile. These kinds of feelings weren’t new to Chan when it came to Jisung. He had tried to get over them twice already, and he had failed twice at that. (Actually it was probably more than that, but he only counted the serious attempts.) The fact that he saw Jisung almost 24/7 the past few months didn’t make things easier for him, but he thought he had managed well so far.

He had even almost managed to get over his feelings before the trip, but he found himself falling further for Jisung every moment he had spent with him during the spring and summer so far. Jisung didn’t seem to notice his slowly but steadily growing feelings, though, thank goodness. 

“What about you?” Jisung spoke, meeting Chan's eyes and pulling him out of his thoughts. Somehow his cheeks seemed more red than before, but maybe that was because Chan had been blatantly staring at him for the past minute. 

“What about me…?” He blinked, confused for a second about what they had been talking about. Jisung chuckled adorably. 

“Did you sleep well? How did you handle the heat?” Jisung asked, coming over to Chan and ruffling his hair fondly. Chan mentally slapped himself for forgetting the topic as he blushed in embarrassment. 

“Yeah. It was fine. I slept well,” he said, trying to hide his embarrassment behind a smile. Maybe changing the topic would help. “Let’s go get that breakfast.” 

They didn’t even have to wake up Hyunjin, the guy had enough sense in him to wake up by himself and not burden Minho too much after he had been so kind to them. And now one of Minho’s upstairs neighbours, Felix, had made breakfast for the  _ six _ of them, even though it was, like, half past seven in the morning.

They couldn’t thank them enough for being so hospitable and kind to them. Chan, Hyunjin and Jisung had met a lot of nice people during their travels, who made exceptions for them or were just a little bit kinder in exchange for some travel stories. Minho hadn’t asked them for anything in return so far, though. 

While Jeongin still had a bit of time before he had to go to the concert hall for his job, Minho took Chan, Hyunjin, Jisung and the van to the garage, which was close to the convenience store where Felix worked. The building of the garage seemed small, but the inside was spacious and Minho showed them around proudly after they managed to safely drive the van in there.

“You guys can do your own thing now if you want. Or you guys can stay here. I’ll be working, though, so…” Minho told them, so the three of them decided to walk around town for a bit, visiting the city center while it was still early and the weather was still cool. It was pretty quiet in the city center, but that was probably because it was still early.

They had asked Minho for some recommendations around the city, so they checked some of them out before it got busy around noon. They picked out a place to eat some lunch before slowly making their way back to the garage to check up on Minho’s progress.

✧✧✧

“Uhm… Minho?” Hyunjin tapped the older’s shoulder, hoping that he wouldn’t be disturbing him too much, but this was urgent. He shifted his weight from foot to foot as he waited for Minho to finish what he was doing. 

“What is it?” Minho put down his stuff and turned to Hyunjin. “I just gave you guys an update right?” 

“Yes, but: Where is the bathroom?” Hyunjin quickly asked him as he tried to not seem too awkward as he was trying to hold his liquids inside. Minho snorted and Hyunjin grimaced.  _ Hurry! _

“There’s a staff bathroom upstairs, but you might wanna just go to the convenience store, because I heard that—” Minho began, gesturing to a hallway, but Hyunjin didn’t have time to listen.

“Okay! Thanks!” He ignored Chan and Jisung’s giggles as he sprinted outside to the convenience store before he would burst. Luckily the convenience store was close to the garage and Hyunjin had long legs so he arrived there without any accidents. Also lucky, there were no people in the shop, so he wouldn’t look like a crazy person walking in with such urgency.

He ran to the counter where Felix stood, who looked at him with wide and surprised eyes. Hyunjin almost slammed his hands down, breathing heavily as he asked the cashier for the bathroom. Felix began laughing and Hyunjin didn’t really get it, but he also didn’t have the mind to be embarrassed.

“Please!” He jumped up and down in impatience as he gave Felix an urgent and pleading look. The latter apologized and quickly pointed him to the bathroom and Hyunjin wasted no time before he sprinted towards the bathroom.

“There’s someone in there who…” Felix tried to tell him something, but Hyunjin wasn’t really processing it as he barged into the bathroom and dashed into a stall. He let out a relieved breath.

“Phew. That’s better.” Hyunjin sighed to himself in relief. Someone then snorted and Hyunjin jumped, gasping in surprise. Now he felt embarrassed. “Jesus, that scared me… Sorry.”

He also now only processed that Felix had said that there was someone in here, but now he was wondering why he had said that.  _ Is there something special about this person? _

_ “Don’t apologize.”  _ The guy in the stall next to him said back and Hyunjin thought that was sweet of him. He smiled to himself about this small but certain happiness and flushed the toilet before hoisting up his shorts and getting out of the stall to wash his hands.

He was actually really curious about the mystery guy in the bathroom stall, because why would Felix point that out to him? Did the guy want privacy? But why? This was a public bathroom. But then he realized something.

_ Ah, maybe he’s hiding, _ Hyunjin thought, because he could kind of relate to wanting to hide in a bathroom where you could have some privacy and no one could see you cry or sulk. He got a little sad thinking about that possibility, because the guy had been pretty sweet to him. 

_ You know what? Maybe I can make him feel better, _ Hyunjin thought to himself.  _ Otherwise he can just tell me to fuck off or something. _ So he turned himself around to face the stall and spoke.

“So, uhh… Are you okay?” He asked. And then he waited for an answer, but it was silent. Maybe the guy didn’t want to talk about it. But just as Hyunjin wanted to give up and leave him alone, the guy spoke up.

_ “Why do you ask?”  _ He asked softly. 

“I was just wondering. Felix told me that someone was in the bathroom and I was wondering why he told me that.” Hyunjin shrugged. “I thought that maybe you were hiding or something and uhh… maybe I can help?” 

It all sounded weird now that he said it, but he felt like he should help this guy out for some reason. “But maybe you just want to be alone right now, sorry about this.” He quickly said to save himself.

_ “No, it’s fine. That’s really thoughtful of you,”  _ the guy said and Hyunjin could hear the smile in his voice. That made Hyunjin smile.  _ “I kind of got lost and I… uhm… I’m waiting for someone to come pick me up. But I uhh… kind of don’t really know how to tell them where I am.”  _

“Oh, that sucks.” Hyunjin felt bad for the guy. “Maybe I can help you— I mean, I’m here for the first time as well, but I’m sure that Felix or Minho from the garage nearby can help… Do you want to come out of the stall, by the way? Or…” 

_ “Uhh…”  _

“It’s fine if you don’t want to show yourself right now.” Hyunjin assured him.

_ “No that’s not it… I just _ — _ ”  _ He cut himself off and Hyunjin heard him take a deep breath. Then the boy opened the stall and shyly stepped out. He was pretty cute and he looked kind of like a puppy. 

“Hi. My name’s Hyunjin, by the way.” Hyunjin greeted him happily and the guy looked at him with a bit of a surprised look. Hyunjin didn’t understand it, was he being too forward? He scratched his neck. “Oh, uhh. What’s yours? Or do you not want to tell me?” 

“Wh…” The guy’s expression jumped all over the place as if Hyunjin was telling him riddles or something. He then shook his head and grinned cutely. “Sorry, my name is Seungmin, nice to meet you.” 

“What a nice name.” Hyunjin grinned back as he sat on one of the counters next to the sink, because he didn’t think that Seungmin wanted to leave right now. “How can I help you?” 

“Well, uhh, do you know the name of this store? Or how to get here from the city center…?” Seungmin asked Hyunjin and Hyunjin told him the name of the store and the name of Minho’s garage nearby to compensate for the fact that he didn’t remember how they got back here from the city center.

Seungmin called someone, probably the person who was going to pick him up, and Hyunjin offered to give him some privacy, but the boy shook his head and motioned him to stay. When he was finished with his call he turned to Hyunjin.

“My, uhm, my friend will come pick me up later, but he’s coming by car, so it’ll probably take another twenty minutes to half an hour before he can get the car and come here because he looked the place up and it turns out that he was walking in the complete opposite direction.” Seungmin chuckled as he spoke and Hyunjin’s heart made a jump at how nice it sounded. He suddenly was glad that it would take a while for the friend to come pick him up, because Hyunjin didn’t want to say goodbye yet. “So, uhh…”

“What do you want to do in the meantime?” He asked as Seungmin trailed off slowly. The latter pressed his lips together into a thoughtful pout. 

“Uhh, is it weird for me to ask you to stay somewhere private with me? I kind of don't want to be in public until my friend picks me up, but some company would also be nice.” Seungmin gave him a hesitant, but hopeful look and Hyunjin didn't know what was going on in his life right now that he didn't want to be in public, and maybe it was slightly dangerous to go somewhere private with a stranger, but he just couldn't decline. Seungmin seemed really nice. 

“Sure, my friends are probably still at the garage. Do you want to go there or is that still too public?” Hyunjin suggested, but Seungmin’s face contorted into a hesitant expression. “My friends are really nice! We've been travelling around together for a pretty long time already, uhh, I kind of don't want to disappear on them.” 

“Uhm, are there a lot of people there? Other than your friends?” Seungmin asked him, and Hyunjin wondered if he was afraid of crowds or strangers or something like that. He didn't seem afraid of Hyunjin in any way, though. 

“No, just Minho, but if we go to the break room, we'll have some privacy.” Hyunjin hoped that he wouldn't upset Minho by bringing a stranger to the garage, but it was for a good cause and it was only for a short time. Seungmin agreed and they left the bathroom. 

Seungmin kept himself hidden behind Hyunjin for some reason,  _ he must really be shy or something? _ , even when Felix waved at them. “Took you long enough to come out!” 

“It be like that sometimes.” Hyunjin shrugged, approaching the counter to tell Felix that he was going to help Seungmin out. “This is—”

“I know.” Felix said with a little smile. 

“Huh? You guys know—” Before Hyunjin could finish, Seungmin cleared his throat. “Let's get going.” He spoke, his voice low.  _ Oh, right, he wanted privacy… Shit. _

“Sorry.” Hyunjin apologized, feeling a bit guilty for possibly making him uncomfortable. He gave Felix an apologetic smile after, but Felix was just smiling brightly back at him. Seungmin tugged at his sleeve to hurry him up and Hyunjin apologized again before he hurried out of the convenience store to the garage and into the break room, ignoring questioning looks from Chan and Jisung as he passed them. 

Minho had said that no one would really come there, since the coffee and snacks were way better to get from the convenience store and there were plenty of benches around the workplaces already. 

They sat down on one of the worn out couches and Seungmin let out a deep breath and a laugh before grabbing his phone to type out a text. “Thanks, Hyunjin.” 

“You're welcome, I guess. Sorry for speaking to Felix even though you wanted privacy.” Hyunjin watched as the boy put away his phone and gave him an exasperated look. 

“Stop apologizing. You are already being kind by being considerate enough to listen to me and take me to a more comfortable place,” he said sternly and Hyunjin couldn't help but feel a bit shy. Seungmin didn't seem like a shy person now, why had he seemed so shy in front of Felix and outside, then? It was a bit like how Jisung would act in a crowded place, but then Seungmin seemed to be way better with strangers. At least, with Hyunjin. 

Before Hyunjin could ask anything, the door opened and Chan and Jisung came into the room. Seungmin jumped and looked away, shrinking into himself a bit. 

“Hyunjin! What took you so long?” Chan asked, worriedly. “Who is he?” 

Seungmin suddenly relaxed when Chan looked at him, his expression clearing up. He straightened himself and turned to Hyunjin’s friends. “Hi, I’m Seungmin. Hyunjin is… keeping me company while I wait for my friend to pick me up.”

“Yeah, he got lost and…” Hyunjin tried to explain further, but he didn’t exactly know why Seungmin didn’t want to be in public, and he didn’t want to speak over him. 

“I don’t feel comfortable in public right now,” Seungmin said. 

“Oh, do you want us to leave you alone?” Jisung raised his eyebrows and vaguely gestured to the door, but Seungmin quickly shook his head and told them it was fine. And thus Chan and Jisung joined them on the couch, introducing themselves to Seungmin too.

“So… you guys are travelling together?” Seungmin asked and the three enthusiastically began telling about their travels so far, from visiting cities to camping in nature to sleeping in their van, they had done it all, but there was still so much more to see and to visit. 

“We’ve been saving up money ever since we finished high school to do this.” Hyunjin chuckled. The three of them had decided not to go to college (yet) and instead get a job to save money to travel around. 

“You three must be really close to have decided to do this together and to not get sick of seeing each other every minute of every day for over three months.” Seungmin seemed kind of impressed with that, and Hyunjin understood that in a way, but by now he was so used to being with his friends that he didn’t want it any other way.

“Well, we’ve had our share of disagreements and difficulties together, but those were mostly in the first few weeks of the trip,” Chan explained and shared a look with Jisung and Hyunjin to confirm. “I don’t know if you guys feel the same, but I don’t mind being together every second anymore.”

“Me neither, I actually like it, even though I can be sensitive sometimes.” Jisung agreed and Hyunjin felt the same. He and his friends had been through a lot together and they understood each other better than anyone else, so he was actually afraid to  _ not _ be able to be together with them after their travels would inevitably end.

“That's nice. I'm happy for you guys.” Seungmin smiled so cutely that Hyunjin felt happy. 

“What about you?” He wanted to know more about Seungmin, there was something about him that intrigued Hyunjin and made him curious. “Why are you here?” 

“Me? Oh, well, I’m here for work.” He said, shrugging.

“But… why are you hiding?” Hyunjin tilted his head in question. “I-If you want to talk about that.”

“I'm not hiding from my work! That's not it, I love what I do.” Seungmin quickly clarified. “I just got lost and, well, I don't really know how to explain it, but I kind of don't want to risk…  _ certain people _ seeing me, if that makes sense.” 

It was kind of weird, his story, but that made Hyunjin only more curious. As they chatted for a little while longer, he found that the boy was actually pretty social and he didn't seem shy at all. He also was pretty open to telling about himself, but somehow there still was something mysterious about him. 

Then, Seungmin's phone rang and he told them that his friend was there to pick him up. Just at that moment Minho also came into the room, startling Seungmin and making him jump. Minho also jumped and mumbled something under his breath before he composed himself. 

“Ah, uhh. I think someone's waiting for you outside?” Minho said, but it came out as a question, as he looked around the room in confusion. He looked over Seungmin’s shoulder at the three on the couch. “Do you know this guy?” He turned back to Seungmin. “Does your car need a check up, by the way?” 

“No, thanks.” Seungmin declined politely and he was about to leave— _ Is he going to leave without saying goodbye? _ —when another guy joined them, but this time Seungmin seemed fine. “Ah, hi Changbin.” 

“Hi, your—” The guy flicked his eyes around the room and back to Seungmin and lowered his voice a bit. “Wonpil is waiting for you. We need to get back. Are you okay?” 

“Yeah, I'm fine.” Seungmin nodded before looking back at Hyunjin for a moment. He turned back to Changbin and leaned closer. “Uhh, is there a way I can…?” 

Hyunjin didn't hear the rest, as he whispered the words into Changbin's ear. The latter grimaced and let out a sigh after he saw Seungmin’s expression. 

“Okay,  _ fine _ , don't do the puppy eyes, please. Just—” Now Changbin whispered something to Seungmin and after that, Seungmin finally turned back to the three on the couch. 

“So, thank you for keeping me company for a while, I enjoyed talking to you guys.” He said before he turned his head and made eye contact with Hyunjin, his eyes twinkling as a slight smile appeared on his face. “Hyunjin, thank  _ you _ especially for getting me out of that bathroom and being so nice to me. Uhm… Can I ask you where you are staying right now? Can I come visit you while you are still here?” 

Hyunjin’s eyes widened at the question. He had to stop himself from getting too excited and inviting Seungmin over to Minho’s house without his permission. He definitely wanted to see Seungmin again, though, and he was excited to know that Seungmin felt the same way. 

“Of course! It's okay by me, but I'm staying with Minho, so…” He looked over Seungmin’s shoulder at the mechanic who waved at Seungmin and told him his address. Lucky for Hyunjin, Minho didn't seem to mind inviting strangers over to his house. Seungmin smiled at Hyunjin again. 

“Great.” Seungmin turned around to leave. 

“Just! Uhm, I don't know how long we'll be here, so keep that in mind.” Hyunjin called after him and the boy gave him a thumbs up and a wave to show that he had heard him before he left. Hyunjin was left with a warm feeling in his chest and a smile resting on his face.  _ I can't wait to see him again.  _

  
  
  


✧MH✧FL✧JI✧

  
  
  


“So, you finally know who the artist is who’s coming to the city?” Minho asked Jeongin when they were having dinner together with the six of them. Felix snickered, because they had  _ just _ been talking about Hyunjin’s encounter with Seungmin.  _ Kim Seungmin _ , aka the artist who had come to this city, and Minho had seen him, but apparently neither Minho, nor Hyunjin, Chan or Jisung had recognized him.

When Hyunjin had introduced Seungmin to Felix in the convenience store, he had  _ almost _ given him away, but he had seen that Seungmin didn’t want that, so he had kept his mouth shut. And when Jeongin had texted him with the news that Kim Seungmin, singer of  _ ‘Stay with me’ _ , would perform in the concert hall where he worked, Felix had told him what had happened and they decided to stay quiet. 

“I don’t know, they won’t tell me.” Jeongin shrugged, but Felix saw his mouth twitch, which betrayed his lie, but Minho didn’t seem to notice, because he laughed heartily at the younger. The three travellers seemed to feel for Jeongin, because of course they did, Jeongin had something about him that made people soft for him. Even Minho.

_ Even Minho, _ Felix thought, but actually Minho was a pretty soft and caring person. He had known it from the beginning, but Minho wasn’t usually the person to show it easily. It had been the same with Jeongin, actually. Both of them had been shocked by how easily Felix showed his soft and affectionate side and they had found it hard to open up and show their softer side sometimes, but Felix thought that over time the both of them had gotten a lot better at that. 

He saw that Chan, Hyunjin and Jisung were all three pretty openly affectionate, Felix had found out when Minho told him about how shocked he was to always see them be all touchy with each other, sleeping in the same bed together, holding hands, wrapping arms around each other and hugging each other whenever they were excited. Felix found it heartwarming, but he thought that Jeongin, Minho and him weren’t too different sometimes. Maybe the three of them showed it differently, but they loved each other. 

That night, Jeongin even opened up to Felix about his insecurities at work again, something Felix had also encouraged him to do more, because he had seen what would happen when Jeongin kept his insecurities and frustrations to himself: Felix would ask him how things were going and Jeongin would burst out in tears.

Those kinds of moments would break Felix’s heart and he would even spot Minho’s eyes getting watery. Luckily that wouldn’t happen anymore now that Jeongin would share his thoughts more often.

They had just said goodnight to Minho and his three guests and they were washing up before bed. “You know, they also assigned me the task to do the soundcheck later. Basically on my own.” Jeongin said with a sigh after he put down his toothbrush. Felix followed Jeongin to his room and they sat together on the bed. “I’m afraid I might mess up on my own.” 

“That’s understandable. I feel like you’re pretty good at soundchecks, though.” Felix put his hand on Jeongin’s shoulder, who shrugged with a pout. “And besides, Seungmin didn’t strike me as a big headed famous singer. I don’t think he’ll get mad at you.” 

“I do think I’m good at soundchecks, but usually someone’s there to correct me if I accidentally turn the wrong knob or something.” Jeongin mumbled, laying his head on Felix’s shoulder as Felix combed a hand through his hair to soothe him. A mix of warmth and uneasiness swirled through Felix’s stomach as Jeongin hummed a little. “And my boss might get mad at me. Or my coworkers might make fun of me. Seungmin is a pretty big deal after all.” 

“You’re going to be fine, I’m sure of it. I believe in you. Making mistakes is nothing to be ashamed of, and if Seungmin doesn’t get mad at you, your boss has no reason to be either,” Felix told him. He knew it was hard not to worry about those kinds of things, but worrying about them beforehand wouldn’t help anything. “And you shouldn’t pay any mind to your coworkers. Making mistakes is human. But feeling sad about it is fine.” 

Jeongin was quiet for a bit, probably thinking about Felix’s words. Felix knew that Jeongin’s coworkers could be a bit… mean, sometimes, picking on the younger for the most ridiculous things. They were nice most of the time, but they could sometimes say things that would hurt Jeongin, even though Jeongin wouldn’t say it to their faces.

“You’re right. My boss is pretty reasonable.” Jeongin let out a sigh and gave Felix a hug, which the latter returned gratefully, leaving a kiss on the side of Jeongin’s head in the meantime and making him smile. “I feel better now. Thank you, Lixie. You’re the  _ best _ ~.” 

“Anytime.” Felix laughed a little and blushed at Jeongin calling him the  _ ‘the best’ _ and all, because Jeongin wasn’t one to throw around compliments all too often, although Felix had to say he was proud to be on the receiving side of most of the younger’s compliments. He had once asked why that was, and Jeongin’s answer had been that Felix deserved compliments, because he was so nice all the time.

Jeongin was the best.

“Oh, but isn’t there a rehearsal too?” Felix suddenly remembered that Jeongin had said that Seungmin’s management had asked for an extra rehearsal the day before the actual show. Jeongin’s eyes widened.

“That’s right! Jesus, now I feel dumb.” Jeongin slapped his hand against his forehead repeatedly and groaned.

“Don’t feel dumb!” Felix took a hold of his wrist to stop the younger from slapping himself. There was still a red mark on his forehead, though. “Your insecurities are valid.” 

“That’s true. I can still mess up majorly, even with practice.” Jeongin nodded solemnly.

“Ya! That’s not what I meant!” Felix exclaimed as he softly slapped his housemate’s arm, while Jeongin just laughed his adorable laugh that never failed to make Felix happy. And perhaps it never failed to make Felix feel all giddy and warm either, he suddenly realized.

_Wait a second. I never feel like this when_ Minho _laughs._ _Oh gosh._ It suddenly hit him what it all meant. Because Felix might be easy with skinship and affection, but he didn’t realize that there were actually feelings behind it when it came to Jeongin. Somehow he did manage to realize it now, as Jeongin was laughing at himself with a red forehead. _An adorable red forehead._

“What? What are you looking at?” Jeongin snickered and pushed at Felix’s chest softly. Usually Felix would get the urge to hug him, but now he felt a bit shy, so he just shrugged while holding back a grin. The younger's cheeks turned a bit pink as he let out huff. 

“Okay, well, good night then, Felix.” Jeongin smiled gratefully at him and Felix nodded. He gave him one more kiss to the forehead, just because he felt happy that he had been able to help him out. And maybe he had to let some of his feelings out. 

“Good night, Innie.” 

  
  
  


_ ✧End of chapter 2✧ _

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next time will be seungmin who visits hyunjin ;)


	3. Do you want me to stay?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hyunjin took a deep breath to calm himself down a bit and leaned to the side, placing his head on Seungmin’s shoulder. He flicked his eyes up to Seungmin. “Is this okay?”
> 
> “Yes.” It was more than okay. It was nice. Being stuck in an elevator shouldn’t be nice, but it was. Like this, with Hyunjin, it was nice. And maybe it was selfish for him to wish to stay stuck for longer if it meant spending more time with Hyunjin. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> they all have hearty talks w each other and the concert is approaching! ft. a broken elevator, sharing a bed and a soundcheck that went better than expected (and... kisses?)
> 
> enjooyy

✧CB✧SM✧

  
  
  


“Are you still sure that you want to go meet with that boy?” Changbin was fanning himself with a hand fan, even though Seungmin had told him that he could turn on the air conditioning if the temperature would become uncomfortably hot for him, but Changbin had said that it was fine and that Seungmin’s voice was more important than him. 

Seungmin had scoffed at that, because, yeah, he wanted to take care of his voice, especially before a show, but his voice would never be more important than his friend. 

“Yeah, I'm sure.” Seungmin nodded. Hyunjin had been so kind to him, and  _ not _ because he was famous and he wanted to flex or something. It was nice to talk to someone not aware of his fame, without the prejudices and expectations. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll disguise myself and stuff. He stays out of the city center, so it’ll be fine.” 

“And you’ve told Wonpil about it?” Changbin raised his eyebrows accusingly, but Seungmin raised his hands in defense.

“I did! I told him I was visiting a friend.” Seungmin huffed. “I mean, Hyunjin isn’t my friend, but, like, it’s not that different. Why would Wonpil care, anyway?” 

“Uhh, I mean, I’m not a manager, but… You know, uhm, things like dating scandals can happen?” Changbin reasoned and Seungmin rolled his eyes.  _ Dating scandal? I’m literally just visiting a friend? Or, uhh, a very handsome and nice acquaintance who I want to be friends with...?  _

“I won’t be seen. Not if you drive me, Wonpil wanted that anyway. I’ll call you when I need you to come pick me up.” Seungmin waved it off. Everything would be fine.

“And, I know I said I wouldn’t involve myself in your business too much, but I gotta ask, when are you planning on telling Hyunjin that you’re a famous singer?” Changbin asked as they got in the car and left to go to the apartment building where Hyunjin was staying. 

“Uhh, when the time is right.” Seungmin hadn’t really thought about it, as he just wanted to enjoy the free feeling he had when Hyunjin didn’t know about his fame. Changbin hummed and dropped the subject, only telling him to be careful when they arrived and Seungmin put on his sunglasses and mask. 

“I will, don’t worry. See you later.” He waved to his bodyguard and walked towards the entrance of the building, looking for the right number before ringing the bell. He was quite sure he had remembered the right apartment number, but he was still nervous that someone else would answer and find him out or something.

_ “Hello?”  _ Someone answered and  _ jeez _ , Seungmin didn’t really recognize the voice like this. There were footsteps in the background. 

“Hi, uhh, Minho?” He remembered that Hyunjin was staying with the guy named Minho, so he hoped that this was Minho.

_ “Yep, that’s me,”  _ the guy said and Seungmin felt a weight fall off his shoulders.  _ Phew.  _ Saved from his first possibly embarrassing moment.

“It’s Seungmin,” he said and he heard a soft gasp. For a second he was worried that Minho was onto him, but he just kept going. “Is Hyunjin there?”

_ “Yeah, he’s _ — _ ”  _ Minho began, but he was cut off by Hyunjin himself.

_ “I’m here! I’ll come get you,”  _ the boy said and Seungmin had to hold back a laugh because of how happy Hyunjin sounded. Also because he heard footsteps again and a door closing. Minho snickered too.

_ “I’ll open the door for you,”  _ he said and a buzz sounded, so he could push open the door.  _ “See you soon.” _

Seungmin walked into the building and he looked for the elevator or the stairs, eventually spotting both. He also wondered if he should wait for Hyunjin or meet him halfway, but just as he was wondering, Hyunjin came thundering down the stairs.

“Hi!” He greeted Seungmin with a big smile and Seungmin took off his sunglasses and mask and put them in his bag before greeting Hyunjin back. 

“How are you?” Hyunjin took him to the elevator and they shortly exchanged the usual  _ ‘How are you?’  _ and  _ ‘I’m fine, thanks’  _ before they went on to other topics. He already felt quite comfortable chatting with Hyunjin, even after only a day.

“So, how’s your van—?” Seungmin began, but suddenly the elevator shook a little and stopped, the lights turning off and Hyunjin letting out a squeak. Seungmin felt a hand grab his arm and his heart shot up his throat. 

“What happened…?” Hyunjin whispered. It was dark, only a faint emergency light and the light of the buttons were lighting them up. Seungmin pushed the floor button again, but it didn’t do anything. There wasn’t an emergency button either.  _ Oh gosh. Who makes an elevator without an emergency button?! Who approved of this? _

“Uhm… I think the elevator is stuck.” He answered as he pulled out his phone and tried to call someone, but  _ of course _ there was no service. “Shit.” 

“Can you call someone? I didn’t bring my phone.” Hyunjin’s eyes looked a bit glassy as they reflected the light of the buttons and Seungmin wondered if he was scared. An uneasy feeling settled in his stomach as he thought about that possibility, because he wouldn’t know how to make him feel at ease.

“Nope, no service.” Seungmin let out a breath, pressing his lips together. Even  _ if _ they had service, he wouldn’t know who to call. He didn’t have Minho’s number, and he didn’t know any maintenance numbers. “I guess we’ll have to wait until someone finds out that the elevator is broken?” 

Hyunjin let out a deep sigh and slumped down the wall of the elevator. He ran a hand through his hair as Seungmin sat down next to him. It was silent for a while except for Hyunjin’s soft and slightly shaky breaths.

“Are you… scared?” Seungmin finally spoke up, turning to look at the taller boy. Hyunjin pressed his lips together before turning to face Seungmin as well.

“A little…?” His expression looked guilty and Seungmin felt bad.

“It’s okay if you do, just— Uhh, is there something I can do to make it better? I have a flashlight on my phone.” Seungmin suggested and Hyunjin’s expression relaxed a little. He shook his head.

“It’s okay. I’m not  _ that _ scared of the dark.” Hyunjin told him. “It’s mostly just the situation in general. Nothing you can really do except for not leaving me alone.” 

“Even if I could I wouldn’t do that.” Seungmin blurted out the words before he could realize what he said.  _ Whoops, am I being too keen? Too forward? _ He normally wouldn’t blurt things out this easily, but there was something about Hyunjin that made Seungmin let his guard down. And maybe it was also because there was no one else around to hear it. 

“That’s sweet of you, thanks.” Hyunjin smiled a little. 

  
  


The next hour or so (who was keeping track, honestly?) was filled with chatter. Hyunjin told Seungmin that Minho guessed he would be done with fixing the van in a day or two, and Seungmin couldn’t help but think about his own show that was in two days. He didn’t know if he wanted Hyunjin to come or not. 

Of course he wanted to share his love for singing with Hyunjin, because the conversation flowed so easily between them and Seungmin felt things  _ click _ between them. Hyunjin seemed to get more and more comfortable too, and Seungmin found out that he was really funny, even though Hyunjin was laughing at Seungmin even more.

“Oh gosh,  _ stop _ making me laugh I’m going to pee my pants!” Hyunjin was wheezing with laughter and he wiped at his eyes to get rid of the tears forming in the corners. Seungmin snickered along with him and tried to ignore the fond and proud feeling in his chest he got from having made Hyunjin laugh. 

Seungmin actually had to make sure that he wouldn’t laugh too much himself, because that could damage his throat. “Okay, okay. I’ll stop.” 

Hyunjin took a deep breath to calm himself down a bit and leaned to the side, placing his head on Seungmin’s shoulder. He flicked his eyes up to Seungmin. “Is this okay?”

“Yes.” It was more than  _ okay _ . It was  _ nice _ . Being stuck in an elevator shouldn’t be nice, but it was. Like this, with Hyunjin, it was nice. And maybe it was selfish for him to wish to stay stuck for longer if it meant spending more time with Hyunjin. 

“Hey, Hyunjin?” Seungmin broke the silence that had fallen over the two as they sat side by side, shoulders pressed together and Hyunjin’s long hair tickling Seungmin’s neck. Hyunjin hummed in question and Seungmin swallowed. “Uhm, do you think you’ll leave as soon as the van is fixed?” 

Hyunjin raised his head from Seungmin’s shoulder to look at him and Seungmin already missed the weight. “I don’t know,” he whispered softly and absentmindedly, as if he was distracted by something else, but the only thing he was doing was looking at Seungmin, who felt shy under Hyunjin’s soft gaze.

They made eye contact and Seungmin’s stomach flexed involuntarily as butterflies rushed their way through it and his ears heated up. He was glad that it was probably too dark for Hyunjin to see the colour of his warm ears, even from up this close. He felt an overwhelming urge to lean forward and close the small gap between them, but before he could give in to anything, Hyunjin’s eyes changed and he leaned back a bit.

“Do you want me to stay?” He asked with a chuckle. 

“Well, I at least would like to stay in touch with you,” Seungmin said after a pause. 

“Me too.” Hyunjin nodded, before he perked up and patted Seungmin’s leg. “Gimme your phone, I’ll give you my number so we can stay in touch.” 

Seungmin fumbled around for his phone and unlocked his for him, opening his contacts so that Hyunjin wouldn’t have the chance to see anything else, before giving it to Hyunjin, who took it with a smile.

“I don’t have data and I don’t use wifi that often, so you’ll have to text or call me. I hope that’s okay?” Hyunjin flicked his eyes up to look at Seungmin for a second before he typed in his phone number and saved his contact. He saved himself as  _ ‘Hyunjinnie’ _ and Seungmin felt himself blush. 

“That’s great.” Seungmin smiled. Then, he couldn’t do anything with Hyunjin’s number right now, because he still didn’t have any service, but he was glad to have it. He also thought it was pretty funny that Hyunjin didn’t seem to use his phone very often. It fit him, somehow.

“Also, I sometimes forget to charge my phone, but I’ll try to remember for you.” Hyunjin grinned and Seungmin chuckled at Hyunjin’s confirmation of his earlier thoughts. “But uhm, you still can’t call anyone?”

“Nope...” He pressed his lips together in slight disappointment, but it was only slight, because again, he didn’t really mind being stuck in here with Hyunjin. 

“Ah, damn—” Hyunjin began, but he jumped as the elevator moved and a creaking sound echoed through the shaft for a moment before a dull  _ bam _ sounded and Hyunjin shot his arms around Seungmin to hold him tight as he whimpered. “W-What was that?” 

The elevator wasn’t moving and Seungmin had to admit that his heart was  _ hammering _ at light speed in his chest, both because he was startled and kind of scared and also because Hyunjin’s cheek was pressed against his collarbone, his nose tickling the side of his neck, and his arms were wrapped tightly around Seungmin’s chest. 

Seungmin wrapped his arms around Hyunjin’s shoulders and caressed his head a bit. “I don’t know.”

Hyunjin took a deep and shaky breath and squeezed Seungmin tight. It hurt to see.  _ Come on, Seungmin. Do something about it. Think rationally and tell him it’s going to be okay. _ Seungmin also took a breath and unwrapped his arms around Hyunjin to place his hands on Hyunjin’s jaw instead, slowly lifting his head.

He met Hyunjin’s watery eyes and gave him a serious look. “It’ll be fine, we’re going to be fine, okay? The elevator can’t be much higher than the third floor. Chan and Jisung will be looking for you and for help by now.” 

At the mention of his friends, Hyunjin’s eyes widened and his expression cleared. “You’re right.” He let out a breathy laugh and Seungmin felt his cheeks become warm, so he quickly lowered his hands.

“Sorry, you must be scared too, I heard your heart and stuff.” Hyunjin’s fingers danced around on Seungmin’s sides, as if he wasn't sure if he was meant to keep them there. Seungmin shook his head. 

“I'm not that scared. Not— Not anymore.” He stuttered a bit, trying to ignore the way his heart was still pounding harshly in his chest, but Hyunjin seemed to see right through him in this moment, his expression slightly worried as he knitted his brows together. 

Seungmin let out a sigh and brushed some hair out of Hyunjin’s face to distract himself from the way Hyunjin was looking at him, but he was surprised to feel Hyunjin leaning into the touch a bit. 

“Seungmin…” Hyunjin whispered, sending a shiver down Seungmin’s spine, all the way to his toes, even though he had only said his name. Again, something had shifted in Hyunjin’s eyes and Seungmin couldn’t hold his gaze, so he looked away, slightly past Hyunjin. His fingers were tingling against Hyunjin’s skin and he had to hold his thoughts back from straying to dangerous grounds.

“I'm really fine.” He gathered some courage to look at the other boy, but that was a bad idea, because Hyunjin was looking back at him with an expression that was way worse than worried. It was content, soft, gentle, maybe even  _ fond.  _

And so without thinking about it, he let his fingers slide through Hyunjin’s long hair, feeling the latter's fingers tighten their grip on Seungmin’s sides and pull him closer. 

“Kiss me.” Hyunjin’s breath tickled against Seungmin’s hot cheek as their faces were suddenly mere centimeters apart and  _ good lord _ did Seungmin want to kiss him. He closed his eyes and leaned forward to close the gap between them and place a soft kiss on Hyunjin’s plump lips. Hyunjin returned it almost eagerly, leaning into the touch and moving his lips against Seungmin’s, who almost fell backwards against the wall if it wasn't for the way he held onto Hyunjin tightly, one hand in his hair and the other on his shoulder. 

He felt like his nerves were set on fire. 

When they parted, Seungmin had to take a moment to process that  _ that _ had really just happened. He felt like he should say something about it,  _ anything _ , but the words wouldn’t come. Hyunjin’s eyes were still on him and he looked a bit insecure, but the only thing he could think of doing was kissing him again. (And again, and again.)

And so Seungmin did exactly that, pulling Hyunjin’s face closer and leaning forward to meet him halfway, their teeth clashing a bit clumsily, but they soon slowed down a bit and relaxed against each other. It felt amazing to kiss Hyunjin and it felt amazing to have him in his arms like this, but just as he felt Hyunjin lean into him, the elevator shook again and they jumped in surprise.

Hyunjin was still fisting Seungmin’s shirt, his forehead against Seungmin’s shoulder, as the lights turned on and the elevator began slowly moving again. Seungmin softly shook Hyunjin’s shoulder and whispered to him. “Hey, Hyunjin, we’re moving again.” 

Hyunjin lifted his head up and relaxed when he saw that the lights were on, letting out a sigh. Seungmin wanted to stand up already, but Hyunjin quickly left a kiss on his cheek, and whispered, “Let’s talk about this later?” 

“Yeah, yes.” Seungmin quickly nodded as the elevator doors opened and they were met with the worried looking friends of Hyunjin, Minho and two mechanics. 

“Jesus, we were so  _ worried _ about you!” Chan brought a hand through his hair with a deep sigh and pulled Hyunjin into a hug together with Jisung, who looked pretty shaken up as well. Chan pulled out of the hug and looked at Seungmin as well. “Are you okay, too?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about me.” Seungmin nodded, a little anxious because maybe one of the mechanics would recognize him, but they weren’t paying attention to him, just to the elevator and to Minho, who was thanking them for helping out. 

  
  


They didn’t end up talking about anything related to their kiss in the elevator, eventually, but he did have a feeling that Chan and Jisung were onto something. They didn’t say anything about it, though, and Seungmin actually had a lot of fun talking to them as well. 

When Seungmin got a text from his manager that he had to come back for some last things today and that he had sent Changbin to come pick him up— Changbin should really ask for a raise at this point— he said goodbye to everyone and thanked Minho for his hospitality. 

Hyunjin walked him to the front of the building— they took the stairs this time— and Seungmin could tell there was something he still wanted to say.

“Hey, Seungmin?” He began as Seungmin turned to him. “Can I tell my friends about what happened? I— It helps me gather my thoughts, you know, before I talk to you about things? I won’t say anything you don’t want me to say, though.” 

“Yes, you can do that, tell them anything that happened, it’s fine,” Seungmin said without really thinking about it. He had faith that Hyunjin wouldn’t cross any lines that could cause dating scandals or something. “I just need some time to think as well.” 

“Of course.” Hyunjin nodded with a little smile, his eyes flicked down to his feet and a faint pink blush spread across his cheeks. “I— I do really like you, Seungmin. I think we get along really well.”

“Me too. I’m busy tomorrow and the day after, but if you’re still here by then I would love to see you again.” Seungmin said and made a mental note to himself to tell Hyunjin  _ everything _ then. That would be soon enough, right? He couldn’t tell him anymore, not right now, anyway, so he guessed he had no other choice. 

“I’ll keep you updated,” Hyunjin said and his smile grew even bigger. He patted Seungmin’s shoulder and pointed outside. “I had a lot of fun, but I think your friend is waiting for you.”

“Right, bye, Hyunjin.” He wanted to wave at him, but Hyunjin spread his arms for a hug. Seungmin let out a laugh as he accepted it.

“Bye bye, Seungmin.” Hyunjin whispered.

Seungmin really didn’t want to leave, but Changbin  _ and _ Wonpil were waiting for him, so he left. But he felt warm for the whole evening after and the smile he had never left his face. Having met Hyunjin was really beginning to feel like a dream come true. 

_ Maybe that shooting star really did something. _

  
  
  


✧BC✧HJ✧JS✧

  
  
  


“It's always a lot of fun, so you guys should definitely come. I’m sure Jeongin can get you guys some tickets.” Minho said excitedly as the six of them were having dinner together again after Seungmin had left. 

“You don’t even know who’s going to perform, Minho.” Jisung pointed out, pointing his utensils at the older. Minho sighed and rolled his eyes and Chan snickered at the way they already got along pretty well. He had seen Jisung really learn to open up more during their trip, and he was proud of him for that, because even though they have had to deal with a lot of strangers on their travels, both Jisung and Hyunjin had insisted on not letting Chan deal with everything on his own, and as a result, the two had actually became better at making conversations with strangers. 

Especially Jisung had been shy at the beginning, so he was glad to see him make friends with Minho. With Felix and Jeongin, too, actually. 

“I know, and by now I kinda  _ want _ it to be a surprise.” Minho said before he turned to his upstairs neighbours. “I know  _ you two _ already looked it up, and I know the person is supposedly a big deal, but I don’t wanna know.” 

_ A big deal?  _ Chan wondered if that meant it would be packed in there, then. That… wouldn’t be good, he thought. 

“We probably don’t even know the artist either, unless they, like, come on the radio a lot.” Hyunjin shrugged and Chan saw that Jeongin was holding back a laugh. He wondered what that meant. “But I would love to come if it’s not too much trouble. It’ll be fun, right?” 

Hyunjin raised his eyebrows at Chan and Jisung, but Chan was still hesitant about going, both because it would probably be difficult for Jeongin to get them tickets and because if the concert hall would be packed, it could be hard for Jisung. He didn’t like crowds one bit. He turned to Jeongin. “Are you sure it’s not too much trouble to get tickets?” 

“No, it’s fine. I have my ways.” Jeongin wiggled his eyebrows with a smirk. Chan snickered and then he turned to Jisung. He wasn’t sure if he should ask Jisung about the crowd in front of everyone, so he just silently asked him if he wanted to go with his eyebrows. 

“Yeah! Sounds like fun!” Jisung said and so Chan accepted as well. He guessed he was maybe worrying for nothing. Jisung was a grown man, but Chan couldn’t help but think of ten year old Jisung hiding behind Chan and Hyunjin when they went out into the city alone for the first time on a saturday afternoon when it was busy as heck, the younger was holding on to Chan’s arm the entire time. 

And yeah, that had been more than twelve years ago, but Chan had also noticed his uneasiness whenever they would visit touristy places and there were a lot of people, which they wouldn’t do very often for precisely the reason that Jisung preferred quiet over busy and bustling. It just wasn’t his cup of tea, and that was fine, but Chan couldn’t help but worry about him.

After dinner, Jisung offered to help Minho with the dishes and Hyunjin took this opportunity to drag Chan into the guest room, closing the door behind him before he gave Chan a look that the latter was all too familiar with. It was the  _ ‘I have something sneaky to say’  _ look. 

“So, this concert…” He began, slowly approaching Chan, who was wondering if he should be scared or not. Hyunjin placed his arms on Chan’s shoulders, wiggling his eyebrows. “Are you going to take it as an opportunity to, maybe, get your feelings across to a certain someone?” 

“W-What?” Chan spluttered, but he knew that it was no use, trying to play dumb in front of his best friend. He knew that Hyunjin knew about his feelings for Jisung, but they never  _ really _ talked about it, not after Chan had told him that he would get over him two times already. He wondered why Hyunjin brought it up now, of all times. 

Hyunjin just gave him a pointed look and Chan sighed. “Why  _ now _ ? Why at the concert?”

“I don’t know, it could be romantic?” Hyunjin shrugged, but Chan didn’t really get how a concert could be particularly romantic, especially not since it would probably be busy as heck.

“You think?” Chan scrunched up his face in question. Hyunjin let out something in between a breath and a chuckle and pulled Chan to sit next to him on the bed. They turned to each other and Hyunjin took Chan’s hand in his.

“Ah, I get it.” He nodded in understanding. “You are worried about him.” 

Chan averted his gaze in embarrassment, Hyunjin had seen right through him. “I try not to worry.”

“You always try not to worry, but you always end up worrying about us anyway.” His friend pointed out as he squeezed his hand. “That’s okay, maybe it’s good that you’re worrying. I hadn’t really thought about the fact that it could be a sold out concert with a lot of people.” 

“Do you think Jisung will be… okay?” Chan pressed his lips together and looked back at Hyunjin, who shrugged again.

“He said it sounded like a lot of fun, so either he’ll be okay, or he hasn’t thought about it yet,” Hyunjin said. “But either way, you shouldn’t worry about him beforehand! Worrying about him during the concert is fine, but only if something is wrong.  _ Now _ you should worry about making a plan to tell him how you feel!” 

“I’m not going to drop that bomb on him during the concert.” Chan huffed. Jisung may not want a  _ confession _ from his best friend on his plate other than already having to deal with the crowd,  _ even _ if the crowd wouldn’t be a big deal to him. Chan didn’t want to ruin the experience of the concert for him. 

“No, no, I’m not saying that you should do it then, I realize that’s not a good idea.” Hyunjin waved his hands and shook his head. “I just think you should think about telling him how you feel, since I don’t think you’re going to get over him anytime soon.”

_ Ouch. _

Chan grimaced. Hyunjin was right, but that didn’t make it less hard to hear. “I know, I just— The risks are too great. I can’t do that. I also wouldn’t know  _ how _ to tell him.” 

Hyunjin pulled him into a tight hug and Chan let out a breath. He was beginning to feel a bit hopeless about his feelings. On one hand he didn’t want to feel like this all the time, he didn’t want to feel like he would explode every time Jisung would touch him, hug him or hold his hand, because he wanted  _ more _ . But he couldn’t risk losing a friend, or losing the comfort of holding him or something.

“It’s okay, Chan. Just— You should know that the risks aren’t as great as you might think.” Hyunjin caressed Chan’s curly hair a bit, a soothing gesture he would often do. It worked, because Chan felt himself calm down a bit more. “We’re best friends. Together forever. It wouldn’t become awkward if you would confess to  _ me _ , so I don’t know why it would ruin anything if you would confess to Jisung.” 

“You and Jisung are not the same,” Chan retorted.

“You’re right. Jisung is less sensitive about those kinds of things than I am.” Hyunjin chuckled and Chan sighed before softly hitting his friend on his arm. “Ok _ ay _ maybe not, but we love each other too much for anything to ruin our amazing friendship. And besides, we wished to stay together forever.” 

Hyunjin was again definitely right about that, but Hyunjin didn’t have a crush on one of his best friends. He had a crush on a boy he met in a convenience store bathroom and kissed in a broken elevator. A boy who he had seen looking at him in interest, a boy who had kissed him back. 

_ Speaking of Seungmin…  _

“Oh, by the way, why don't you ask Seungmin to come with us to the concert?” Chan asked and Hyunjin blinked at the sudden change of subject. Before he could answer, though, the door opened and Jisung peeked his head around the corner. 

“There you are!” He smiled brightly and Chan may have started swooning already. Jisung's smile was just so precious to him. 

The younger walked over to them and plopped down on the bed next to Hyunjin. “Can I join your cuddle time?” 

Hyunjin laughed and ruffled Jisung’s head fondly before Chan told them what they were talking about. (The Seungmin part, of course, the part about his feelings and the concert he kept quiet.)

Hyunjin told them that Seungmin would be busy the coming two days, but a rosy tint colored his cheeks as he said that Seungmin would want to meet if they would still be here after that. Of course Chan and Jisung couldn't resist teasing him about his crush. 

  
  


The evening went by and Chan couldn't stop thinking about Hyunjin's words from earlier.  _ 'We love each other too much for anything to ruin our amazing friendship. And besides, we wished to stay together forever.'  _ Chan had almost forgotten about their wishes, and his own selfish wish. 

He hadn't told his friends about it, but he had wished for his feelings to be resolved without losing his friends. He felt guilty for wishing such a thing after he heard Hyunjin wish for them to stay together forever, but he couldn't take it back. 

Hyunjin’s words from earlier had given him hope, though, that he could tell Jisung about his feelings for him and get closure without ruining everything. It was the right thing to do, but as Chan watched Jisung, who was freshly out of the shower and only wearing a loose tank top, walk over to the bed and get cozy next to him, his mind was left utterly blank. 

“Watcha looking at~?” Jisung looked up at his friend as he lied down and poked Chan's cheeks teasingly. Chan felt caught, and he felt his ears growing red.  _ I was looking at you, because you look pretty, as always.  _

“Nothing.” He snatched Jisung’s hand away and smiled a fake sweet smile at him before he lied down next to Jisung and looked up at the ceiling. He felt Jisung’s eyes still on his face and he tried to tune out the part of his mind that was telling him to recklessly spill his heart out to the younger. 

“Channie,” Jisung spoke softly, his hand coming to rest on Chan's chest, his fingers loosely curled inward. He only said a single word, but Chan could tell by the way he said it that Jisung was reading his mind. “What's going on in that pretty little head of yours?” 

“I was actually thinking about our wishes.” Chan decided to be honest with Jisung, so he turned to his side and faced the younger. Jisung’s hand fell off Chan’s chest and Chan lay his own fingers on Jisung’s. “I… I was wondering if we could really stay together forever.”

Jisung frowned a little. “What do you mean?” 

“I mean, what if something happens?” Chan began, trying to find the right words to formulate his thoughts without exposing himself. “What if, for example, one of us develops feelings for Seungmin too?—I'm just saying anything—Or what if it turns out that Hyunjin has feelings for you or something? Or…” 

Chan quickly tried to think of another example that didn't have anything to do with  _ feelings _ , but his brain wasn't working optimally right now, as Jisung was looking at him from up close. He eventually decided not to finish the sentence and he just gave Jisung a questioning look. 

“Do you think that such a situation might tear us apart?” Jisung asked after a brief silence, his voice barely above a whisper, and Chan almost thought he sounded afraid. 

“I'm asking  _ you _ , 'Sung.” He had to know what Jisung thought. “What would you do if… for example, if Hyunjin or I would have feelings for you?” 

Jisung cast his eyes down and began chewing on his lower lip. Chan wanted to tell him to stop, before his lip would bleed, but he couldn't. Jisung looked back up, pressing his lips together. “I wouldn't let it ruin anything. I love you guys no matter what. I…” 

The younger was obviously struggling to find the right words and he let out a sigh. “Why are you bringing this up? Do you… Uhm, are you worried about something specific?” 

“No,” Chan lied. And he felt damn guilty about it. The answer Jisung had given should have been satisfying, because Hyunjin had said basically the same thing, but Jisung seemed a bit down. Maybe that was just because of the way Chan posed his question, though. “I guess these were just my late night worries. I didn't mean to bring the mood down.” 

“It's okay. I hope talking about it made you feel better.” Jisung gave him a smile and leaned forward to place a very light kiss on his cheek. Chan felt his skin heat up, as always, but for a brief moment, there was something off in his friend's eyes that made him feel uneasy. 

“If you have nothing to say, then I wish you a good night. Sleep well, Channie. Love ya.” Jisung turned himself around to lie on his back and he closed his eyes. Usually Jisung would ask Chan for a good night kiss after he would have given one to Chan, but Chan guessed it was up to him to do it, this time. 

And so he turned to the younger and softly kissed his cheek. “Good night, Jisungie. Love you too.” 

He leaned away, but froze when he saw Jisung’s lips curl up into a shy smile while his eyes remained shut. It didn't take long before the younger turned away and Chan went to sleep as well, feeling warm despite his earlier worries, and glad that he had been able to make Jisung smile. 

  
  
  


✧MH✧FL✧JI✧

  
  
  


“Okay, can you sing one more line?” Jeongin spoke into the small microphone attached to the setup that was connected to Seungmin’s in-ear, while seeking eye contact with the singer on the stage that was a story down. Seungmin nodded and began singing. 

_ “I want to say I like it when you’re by my side.” _ He sang the familiar first part of the chorus of  _ ‘Stay with me’ _ , and Jeongin had to admit it maybe sounded even better to hear it live than to hear it played from Felix’s phone. 

“Does that sound good to you?” He asked and Seungmin gave him a thumbs up. Jeongin wrote down the settings he had on right now so things would go faster tomorrow, before the real concert. He pulled off his headphones and finished up his notes, while in the meantime he heard others give Seungmin directions on what to rehearse for the concert. 

Jeongin didn’t have to do a lot more, now, he only listened to Seungmin singing the songs and stayed alert, in case he would have to adjust the settings on something if Seungmin would change his mind on what he wanted for certain songs. 

He hadn’t messed up majorly, or done anything embarrassing and his coworkers had been pretty decent so far, but he had to thank Seungmin for that, because everyone seemed to want to show their best performance in front of him. Jeongin felt oddly comfortable around the singer, though, but maybe that was because he had heard about him from the perspective of someone who didn’t know about his fame.

It gave Jeongin a perspective other than just seeing him as a famous singer who was somehow better than everyone else. He wondered how Hyunjin would react to seeing Seungmin on stage tomorrow. Or how Seungmin would react to seeing Hyunjin in the audience.  _ If _ he would even see him in the sea of people. 

He spoke about it with Felix again after his work day was over. Felix had immediately come over to him, even though he had just come back from work as well, to ask him about his day. Jeongin could only smile at his roommate’s concern, because the day had been pretty fun actually. 

“I’m happy that you had fun!” Felix smiled brightly and pulled Jeongin into a bone crushing hug. Jeongin let out a strangled sound, but he appreciated the gesture and hugged him back without hesitation. He had been happy already, but Felix’s happiness was contagious, and a warm feeling bloomed in his chest.

“Also, Seungmin is really good. The concert’s going to be great.” Jeongin pulled out of the hug, but his smile didn’t fade. Felix’s smile did turn into a slight pout. 

“I’m sure it will, but it would be more fun if you could watch with us.” Felix’s eyes flicked down to his feet and then up to Jeongin’s eyes. Felix had such pretty eyes, it was unfair. He was beautiful in general, but there was something about his eyes that always made Jeongin feel his heart beat grow a little faster— _ Okay, wow, calm down, Jeongin, we know you like your roommate. Jeez. _

“Yeah, I think so too.” He agreed, he would rather enjoy the concert with his friends, but at least he could talk about things afterward. He would certainly love to see Felix’s expressions while listening to Seungmin sing live, because Felix would always dance around on his songs so prettily, it was something Jeongin could watch for hours if it wasn’t so that Felix would always invite him to dance with him.

_ Gosh I really want to see him dance at the concert, _ Jeongin thought as he imagined his friend dance around with his bright and excited expression and felt himself get dangerously close to confessing that thought right there and then. Felix let out a hum all of a sudden and— _ Damn, were we standing this close to each other the whole time? _

“So, uhh, what do you wanna do?” It came out a lot softer than Jeongin had planned, even considering the fact that they were standing only half a meter apart. His heart was hammering in his chest and he tried to ignore their proximity, but it was hard. 

“I want to kiss you,” Felix whispered and his gaze trailed down Jeongin’s face to his lips—

_ Wait. What?! _

“You—?!” Jeongin spluttered out as he processed the older’s words, his face grew  _ hot _ and he probably was redder than a tomato. He thought he had heard it wrong, but the way Felix’s gaze was steady on his lips for a good five seconds before he looked back into Jeongin’s eyes with a questioning look. “I mean— I want that too, but— I was actually talking about dinner…?” 

“Oh.  _ Oh. _ ” Felix stepped back with a guilty expression, his face growing red, but Jeongin immediately reached forward to grab his arm. “Sorry, Innie—”

“ _ No _ !” He stopped his friend before he could spiral into endless apologies and insecurities. “I just said I…” He swallowed and tried to get out the words.  _ Let’s try to open the door that was still locked.  _ Suddenly the lyrics popped into his head and he didn’t know why his head provided him with that line right now, but maybe it meant that he should just take the chance. 

“I just said I want to kiss you too! And I don’t suppose you meant just give me a kiss on the cheek, because you were all eyeing my lips, but that’s fine, I think, I mean, we  _ are _ roommates, but I also want to kiss you, you know? Because—”

Before he could finish his ramble session, Felix stepped closer and placed his small hand on Jeongin’s jaw, shutting the younger up before he could absolutely embarrass himself. He was impressed (and incredibly attracted) by Felix’s sudden confidence. He let his eyes flutter shut in anticipation as his clammy hands found Felix’s waist.

He could feel the other’s nose brush his and he almost wanted to open his eyes again to make sure that he wasn’t dreaming right now, because this wouldn’t be an unusual dream at all. When he felt Felix’s lips brush his own softly, it felt a lot more  _ real _ , though, and the way his whole face heated up, but now in a pleasant way, was also new.

Jeongin wanted to press their lips together more firmly and—

_ Tap tap. _

_ “Hey guys _ — _ ” _

Jeongin and Felix both let out a squeak as they whipped themselves around to see Minho freeze mid-opening the window, his eyes growing wide and his ears growing as red as Jeongin’s face was right now. 

“Oh— Oh my gosh, uhh—” Minho stammered and looked down at the stairs and motioned someone who was probably one of Chan, Hyunjin and Jisung to stop before looking back at Felix and Jeongin while pulling a face. “Sorry, uhh, I just wanted to tell you that we made dinner, the four of us, but we can keep it warm if you two, well, uhm, need more time.” 

Jeongin was frozen in place and he didn’t dare to look at Felix right now. His heart was pounding at light speed, both because of what had just happened and because of the scare. He didn’t even really process what Minho said, still feeling giddy and jittery from the kiss.  _ Damn, Felix just freaking  _ kissed  _ me. What the heck. _

“Oh, well, Jeongin was getting hungry, right? So…” Jeongin  _ did _ hear Felix and he shook his head and looked at his roommate, who had a gentle expression on his face. 

“Yeah, I was. We can eat now.” Jeongin nodded, and in a surge of confidence, he took Felix’s hand in his own. Felix squeezed their hands together and Jeongin felt himself calm down.  _ No need to feel so on edge, it’s just Felix and Minho,  _ he thought. He could trust them to make him feel comfortable as always.

“Great!” Minho smiled and motioned them to come down. “Let’s eat.” 

  
  


✧✧✧

  
  


During the whole dinner, Felix felt really happy. First, because he was happy that Minho and his three guests had made dinner this time. Second, because Jeongin was happy. And third, because Jeongin really seemed to return his feelings, and Minho seemed so happy with this development as well. Chan, Hyunjin and Jisung were really supportive as well. Felix didn’t expect it to go so smoothly after he had just blurted out that he wanted to kiss Jeongin, but oh well, he certainly wasn’t complaining.

What was even better, was that at the end of the day, they told each other how much they liked the other. It was a hushed exchange in between kisses, but that didn’t make it any less special to him. As soon as the two of them had made it back to their apartment and into their bedroom, Jeongin had taken Felix’s face between his hands and had started kissing him silly. 

And that’s how they ended up on Felix’s bed, kissing each other all over the other’s face. “I like you so much, Lix.” Jeongin whispered in between soft kisses on Felix’s lips. “Have liked you for a while.”

“Me too, Innie.” Felix couldn’t get enough of Jeongin’s lips on his own. He wouldn’t have thought it a couple of weeks ago, but now he couldn’t imagine not being aware of the overwhelming feeling of fondness and warmth he felt, being around the younger. “You make me feel so happy.”

Jeongin smiled into the kiss and Felix couldn’t help but mirror it. The younger looked down at Felix as he was perched over him with the same amount of fondness that Felix was feeling right now. “Be my boyfriend? I think we’re ready for that.” 

“I’d love to, Innie.” Felix tangled his fingers into Jeongin’s hair and pulled him into another loving kiss. If he had the choice, he probably wouldn’t mind kissing Jeongin for hours. Doing anything was better with his roommate, but kissing him was climbing the list of his favourite pastimes. 

He was disappointed that he couldn’t make the concert tomorrow a date for the two of them, because that would be so fun, but he couldn’t have it  _ all _ , he guessed. He was already really happy that he could kiss Jeongin and call him his boyfriend at all. 

They kept kissing for who knows how long, neither of them seemed to get tired of this. And to his (pleasant) surprise, Jeongin took Felix’s chin between his fingers to coax him to slightly part his lips so that he could deepen their kiss, and he felt his entire body heat up. 

Yeah, this was definitely his favourite pastime.

  
  
  


_ ✧End of chapter 3✧ _

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter the concert!


	4. The blue road we walked along together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Day, we are looking for the real meaning_   
>  _So, our far and endless journey continues_
> 
> _For instance, if there is a day you feel down_  
>  _I will be beside you as usual_
> 
> _Dream, you shouldn’t try to understand it alone_  
>  _You, the blue road we walked along together_
> 
> _Now, feel this beating heart of mine_  
>  _Take the next step and walk_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the concert! :0 (warning: angst, but don't worry, everything will end up happy!)
> 
> enjooyy

  
  


✧BC✧HJ✧JS✧

  
  
  


_ Damn, it is really busy here, _ Hyunjin thought as he tried to wade his way through the sea of people that were all apparently buzzing to see this artist, on his way to their place. He looked behind him to see the rest still behind him. He saw Chan holding onto Jisung’s hand, the younger of the two also holding onto Chan’s arm, his expression slightly strained. 

Hyunjin was very glad that they had each other to hold on, because otherwise Hyunjin would take his friend and piggyback him to their places if it was necessary. Chan had taken the less extra approach and just held on to his hand. Valid. 

“Here it is.” Felix spoke, loud enough to be heard above the chatter of the crowd around them. They came to a stop at a part of the hall that provided a pretty good view of the podium, but not too close to the speakers, which was nice. Hyunjin was really thankful for Jeongin that he had given them these tickets.

Hyunjin pulled Jisung a little closer to him and caressed the back of his head a little as he noticed that he was still squeezing Chan’s hand tightly. Minho and Felix looked to the side at Jisung as well, knitting their eyebrows together in slight concern.

“Are you okay?” Felix asked, reaching out his arm to Jisung, but the latter shook him off.

“Yeah, I’m fine, thank you. Don’t worry.” Jisung tried a smile and Hyunjin saw that he wasn’t lying.  _ Good. _

Hyunjin let himself relax now and anticipate the artist that was coming up. He was wondering what kind of music this person made, and if he knew some of their songs or not. It was kind of thrilling, not knowing who the artist was he was about to see, but he would find out soon. 

The lights dimmed a little and the crowd began chanting a name. Everyone was out of sync at first, but after a couple of seconds, Hyunjin could discern a name. 

_ “Kim Seungmin! Kim Seungmin!”  _ The crowd chanted and Hyunjin froze.  _ Seungmin? _ He shook the thought away.  _ No, that can’t be. The Seungmin I know is not a famous singer. He’s a…  _

It dawned upon him that he still didn’t know what Seungmin did for a living and why he was visiting, but he couldn’t be this Kim Seungmin, right? Seungmin wouldn’t just  _ not _ tell him about this, right? No, he would know—

“Hey, Hyunnie?” Jisung poked Hyunjin in his side and the latter jerked to the side to see Jisung look up at him. “Do you hear that? They’re chanting  _ Kim Seungmin _ , right?” 

Hyunjin slowly nodded. “Yeah, but it can’t be the same Seungmin as—” 

“ _ Holy shit _ —!” Minho exclaimed and he whipped his head towards Chan, Jisung, but specifically Hyunjin, before pointing towards the stage. “That’s  _ your _ Seungmin!” 

Hyunjin looked and  _ yup _ , that was  _ ‘his’ _ Seungmin. His cheeks heated up at Minho calling him that, even though he didn’t know about Hyunjin and Seungmin’s kiss in the elevator. His heart dropped and he felt his throat close up for some reason. His brain was helpfully providing him with a string of  _ ‘He lied to you’ _ s, making him feel sort of betrayed in a way.

He knew that he was prone to overreacting, and he knew that Seungmin was kind and there was most likely a very good explanation for the fact that he didn’t tell Hyunjin about this, but he couldn’t help the heavy feeling settling in his stomach. He kept his eyes steadily focused on the singer, barely hearing the loud cheering all around him, but there was no denying it. This singer was the Seungmin he had kissed in a broken elevator just two days prior.

He flinched when he felt a hand touch his arm. He turned to his side to see all of the others look at him.

“Are you okay?” Felix asked him, his eyes shining with a mix of guilt and worry. “Uhm… I knew about this, but I thought I should let him tell you himself. Should I have said anything?” 

Hyunjin quickly shook his head. “No, no— It’s okay, uhm. I’m just surprised.” He flicked his eyes between the four boys, Chan and Jisung were looking right through him, probably, but he hoped not to worry Minho and Felix too much.

“Well— If it helps, he’s a really good singer and Jeongin said that he’s even better live, so try to enjoy the show.” Felix smiled at him and it did help calm Hyunjin down, and when Jisung took a hold of his hand as well, he decided he should indeed try to enjoy the show and let everything sink in for a moment. 

Seungmin was already singing his first and opening song, which Hyunjin didn’t recognize, because if he was correct, he only knew  _ ‘Stay with me’ _ and maybe another song that Felix had played. The crowd was slowly getting quiet and Hyunjin could hear Seungmin’s voice fill the concert hall.

It was  _ breath-taking _ . Seungmin’s voice was beautiful and Hyunjin almost forgot about his earlier worries.  _ Almost _ , because as much as he tried to shake away the irky feeling, he couldn’t. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t simultaneously swept away by Seungmin’s pretty singing and handsome face as he performed the opening song. 

The song was calm but also powerful in a sense, sweeping you off your feet from the beginning on. Seungmin could show off his tantalizing lower register as well as his beautiful head voice.

Before he knew it the first song came to an end— the song seemed to both have flown by and have taken ages at the same time— and a wave of applause and cheers erupted all around him. Seungmin smiled and bowed as the spotlight that had been pointed at him dimmed, probably so that he could see the crowd better for his opening talk. 

“Good evening, guys!” He greeted everyone and another round of loud cheering began. Hyunjin saw that Seungmin was kind of surprised at the amount of people yelling his name and cheering for him. He slowly brought the microphone back to his mouth, waiting for the audience to quiet down before he continued. 

“I hope you enjoyed my opening song—” A pause for cheering. “This song was  _ ‘predawn’ _ . I’m Kim Seungmin and I’m super thrilled for tonight.” He smiled and looked around the hall, waving at some people, but not with as much confidence as you would expect from someone who elicited so much cheering. His gaze went around and Hyunjin got nervous as it approached the side where Hyunjin and the rest were standing.

He didn’t think that Seungmin would see him, but of  _ course _ he did see him. Hyunjin didn’t know  _ how _ Seungmin managed to see him, because it was probably hard with all of the lights shining in his eyes, but right as they made eye contact, Seungmin froze and his eyes widened. Hyunjin tried a smile but he felt too nervous for some reason, he was itching to do something,  _ say _ something to him, but he couldn’t just yell something at him and embarrass him in front of who knows how many people. 

So he just kept trying to smile and Seungmin’s expression slowly went back to the smile from earlier. However uneasy Hyunjin felt right now, he didn’t want to ruin the concert for anyone, and especially not for Seungmin, so he tried his best to smile as earnestly as he could right now.

Seungmin continued looking around the hall, smiling and waving at the audience until he returned to a spot in the middle of the podium. His eyes returned to Hyunjin and the latter squeezed Jisung’s hand tightly to try and get rid of his nerves.  _ Why is he looking at me again? _

“Before I go on with the next song, I want to thank  _ everyone _ for coming.” Seungmin smiled and looked around the hall again, but his eyes kept flicking back to Hyunjin. He seemed to want to say something, his mouth opening and closing before he licked his lips and continued. “I hope you all have fun and enjoy the show!” 

Seungmin got ready for the next song and Hyunjin felt like he was in a daze. Jisung pulled on Hyunjin’s arm and he turned to his friends, who were all looking at him. 

“Oh my gosh, uhh… what do you think Seungmin was just trying to tell you?” Jisung hissed and Hyunjin blinked at him. He had no idea. No clue. 

“He was  _ totally  _ eyeing you just now.” Minho supplied and Chan nodded in agreement. 

“I— I saw that. I…” The music started, so he had to raise his voice a bit. “I don’t know what to think. I just really wish I could talk to him.” 

Hyunjin wasn’t sure if his friends heard everything, but it didn’t really matter, because Seungmin began singing again and Hyunjin wanted to at least enjoy the music tonight and forget about his worries for a while. It was surprisingly easy to forget his Seungmin-involving worries while listening to Seungmin sing. 

He gradually loosened up and he even danced with his friends after a couple of songs and when Seungmin began singing  _ 'Stay with me' _ , he sang along with the rest of the crowd just as loud as Felix. 

  
  


“And for my last song—” A pause for protests. “—I want to give you some hope that I will see you again, so don't be too disappointed.” 

Seungmin met Hyunjin’s eyes again and Hyunjin felt a blush creep up his neck.  _ Is this meant for me…?  _ He really didn't know what to think. 

“Here is  _ 'A New Departure' _ .”

“Yes!” Felix exclaimed excitedly, clapping his hands together as Hyunjin felt his heart up in his throat, the beat pulsing in his ears. 

And to say that he felt hope, hearing the lyrics of this last song, wouldn't be too far from the truth, but he didn't know if he could let himself  _ hope _ yet. Not until he could talk to Seungmin. 

“ _ Day, we are looking for the real meaning _ .” Seungmin began singing after the beginning instrumental of the song. He had been walking around the podium, waving to people before he stopped to sing and met eyes with Hyunjin again. “ _ So, our far and endless journey continues. _ ”

“ _ For instance, if there is a day you feel down, I will be beside you as usual, _ ” he sang and Hyunjin felt his chest tighten, the lyrics hitting him like a truck.

“ _ Dream, you shouldn’t try to understand it alone. You, the blue road we walked along together. _ ” Hyunjin was reminded of his journey with Chan and Jisung, how he had shared so much with them already. The song was progressing to the chorus and Seungmin was still looking at him every once in a while. “ _ Now, feel this beating heart of mine. Take the next step and walk. _ ”

When the chorus began, everyone began singing along.

“ _ We look up at the same sky, as if we’re floating with the clouds. The changing form and colours of my thoughts are carried along by the wind. _

_ The tears that we shed yesterday are our guide to tomorrow, because the promise that I made with you is carved in our hearts. _ ” 

Hyunjin didn’t mean to cry, but he felt tears stinging in his eyes. This song did things to him. It gave him hope for the future, but at the same time made him think back on everything he had been through already.

“ _ Why, are there days we sigh? So, not everyone is that strong. For instance, if you laugh for me, happiness will spread. _ ” The smile that Seungmin had on his face was blinding as he sang on. “ _ One, only one is not enough. Still, there are a lot of things we haven’t noticed yet. _ ”

“ _ The faint light that’s just a second ahead makes me want to believe in the future. _ ” 

The second chorus began. 

“ _ Looking at the same moon, counting shooting stars. Each wish that we put up that day is carried along with our dreams. _

_ Let’s try to open the door that was still locked. We’ll meet again by chance one day, because we have the bond that we made. _ ” 

Hyunjin thought about the night he went stargazing with Chan and Jisung and they saw that shooting star. It felt like fate, to hear these lyrics. He felt like Seungmin was singing directly to him and he couldn’t help but let the tears flow. 

“ _ For instance, no matter how much we are separated. There’s no end to us if it’s with you. _ ” It was the last part before the last chorus and Jisung and Chan noticed that Hyunjin was shaking and asked him if he was okay. Hyunjin waved them off with a nod.

“ _ We look up at the same sky, as if we’re floating with the clouds. The changing form and colours of my thoughts are carried along by the wind. _

_ The tears that we shed yesterday are our guide to tomorrow, because the promise that I made with you is carved in our hearts. _ ” 

That was it. Hyunjin had made up his mind. He was going to speak to Seungmin no matter what.

  
  


✧CB✧SM✧

  
  


“You did so well!” “Good work!” “Nice one, Seungmin.” Seungmin was flooded by compliments after the concert as he got backstage. He bowed and thanked everyone politely, but really he just wanted to get out of here and stop Hyunjin from leaving so that he could talk to him.

He couldn’t do that before he wrapped everything up backstage though, returning the mics and the like. They even got someone to help him with that now, and if Seungmin remembered correctly, his name was Jeongin, the same guy who did his sound checks.

“You were great! You can give me the mic.” Jeongin smiled brightly and Seungmin felt himself calm down from all of the adrenaline of the concert. 

“Thanks. Couldn’t have done it without your help, though.” Seungmin said, and his compliment seemed to startle Jeongin a bit. “I could hear myself well.”

“Oh! Thank you.” Jeongin smiled even wider as he took Seungmin’s mic from him and helped him disconnect his in-ears. It was sweet, but Seungmin really wanted to get out and talk to Hyunjin right now, but before he could ask Jeongin if they were finished, the sound of arguing sounded from close to the door to the audience. 

The two of them whipped their heads around and Seungmin could swear he heard Changbin. He started walking over there, ignoring Wonpil who was coming to check out what the fuss was all about and who was telling him to let him and Changbin handle it. He couldn’t pass up the chance that this was Hyunjin trying to see him, though.

“Please step away, you  _ can not _ come backstage—!” Changbin loudly announced, his voice rising above the protests of a crowd that had formed in front of the backstage door. Seungmin could barely see who was trying to get in, but then he  _ heard _ it.

“ _ Please _ just tell Seungmin that I’m here. I need to see him!” That was unmistakably Hyunjin. Seungmin’s heart jumped. 

He immediately grabbed Changbin’s shoulder and pulled him back a little, ignoring the gasps and yells from the crowd. “You  _ have _ to let Hyunjin backstage.” 

“What—?!” Changbin turned to Seungmin while at the same time he kept an eye on the crowd. “Hyunjin? Is he—?!”

“I  _ need _ to speak to him!  _ Please _ , Changbin!” He pleaded. Seungmin tried to look past him and saw Hyunjin’s wide and teary eyes.

“Kim Seungmin! You can’t let someone in without any reason! Think about what people could  _ think _ .” His manager tried to stop him but Seungmin tuned him out. His reputation wasn’t more important than being a decent human being, so he gave Changbin an urgent look.

Changbin sighed. “Get back inside, I’ll do it,” he hissed before turning back to the crowd and slamming the door behind him.  _ “You there, who started this, get in. I’m going to deal with you myself. The rest,  _ get out _! I don’t have time to deal with each and every one of you!”  _

Soon Changbin came back, dragging a disheveled looking Hyunjin with him, his cheeks covered in red streaks and the sight broke Seungmin’s heart to see. Wonpil was pinching his nose bridge and clenching his teeth, but Seungmin told him not to worry, Changbin had made it seem like they were going to arrest Hyunjin or something, so the rest would probably get the hint and get out. 

“Changbin, be careful with him!” Seungmin approached them and Changbin apologized, grumbling softly. Hyunjin didn’t look him in the eyes and Seungmin felt incredibly bad. He tried to catch Hyunjin’s gaze, but he realized that maybe they should go somewhere private—

“Hyunjin? Are you okay? What’s going on?” Jeongin joined them and Seungmin jumped.  _ They know each other? _ He now also saw that everyone was looking at them and he gritted his teeth. 

Just at that moment, more knocks sounded on the door.  _ “Hyunjin? Are you in there?”  _

Changbin let out the deepest sigh Seungmin had ever heard and they were all still looking at Seungmin and Hyunjin, waiting for someone to say something.

“That’s Jisung… Uhm…” Hyunjin mumbled before looking at Jeongin. “Uhh, it’s just— I’ll maybe tell you later? Right now I just really want to talk to Seungmin, if that’s okay.” 

“Yes, okay. Let’s go somewhere more private.” Seungmin motioned him to come with him and assured the rest that he was Seungmin’s friend and that everything was fine. Changbin stopped him, though.

“Wait. What do I do with the guy looking for Hyunjin outside? Send him away?” Changbin gestured vaguely in the direction of the door, but Jeongin told them that he would talk to him. Wonpil, however, forbade Jeongin from doing that and told Changbin to tell Jisung to wait for his friend to come out later. 

“You wait here until your friend comes back, too. The rest of the staff  _ leaves _ . Seungmin,  _ you _ are not leaving the building with him.” Wonpil ordered everyone around. “You two can have your privacy.” 

  
  


“Why didn't you tell me?” Hyunjin still wasn't looking at him as they went to an empty dressing room. He looked hurt. Seungmin didn't know what to say to him, but he desperately wanted to make him feel better. 

“Did you really not know?” Seungmin asked instead, and Hyunjin shook his head. “Why did you come to the concert?” 

“Because Jeongin, the sound guy, is Minho’s upstairs neighbour and he got me and my friends tickets,” Hyunjin explained. “They all don't know about… us. Whatever we are. And not even Minho knew what artist we were going to see. I just thought it would be a fun thing to do before we leave.” 

“You're leaving already?” Seungmin hesitantly placed a hand on Hyunjin’s arm, but the latter flinched. Seungmin pulled back and grimaced. “Hyunjin, please look at me? I'm sorry.” 

“Why didn't you tell me?” Hyunjin repeated the question and turned to look Seungmin straight in the eyes. “Why didn't you tell me that you sing? That you were here for a concert?” 

“I— I wanted to tell you. I wanted to invite you to come to the concert. I just didn't want to… pressure you after our kiss.” He tried to explain it, but he didn't know how. Hyunjin didn’t look satisfied with his answer. 

“I don't understand.” He said, pressing his lips together, holding back a scowl. “How would you telling me about your passion pressure me? Because you are obviously passionate about this.” 

Seungmin sighed and deflated. “When you say it like  _ that _ it doesn't make sense anymore…” He didn't know what to say and he felt absolutely terrible and guilty now. Hyunjin would probably be super understanding and he should have definitely told him that he was a singer, but those thoughts were not useful now. 

“It's just that I recently gained a lot of fame and I don't know how to handle it, so I guess I wanted to enjoy the fact that you didn't know about me and that you treated me as a normal person.” He winced at his own words,  _ gosh _ he sounded like an asshole. “It was selfish, I know. I'm really sorry for betraying your trust.” 

“You could have just told me and skipped the fame part, Seungmin, just the parts you  _ are  _ comfortable sharing. It wouldn't change how I see you. It  _ doesn't  _ change how I see you,” Hyunjin said, his voice strained by hurt and Seungmin felt so incredibly guilty. “I know that I am maybe overreacting a bit, but we _ kissed _ , that changes the situation. You told me that you wanted to stay in touch! I… I feel used.”

“ _ No. _ ” Oh gosh, no, no,  _ no _ . Seungmin stepped forward and took Hyunjin’s hand in his, giving him an urgent look. “I was planning on telling you everything, but I chickened. I— I didn't think you'd come to the concert. I thought I could tell you after. I didn't mean to hurt you.”

Hyunjin’s silence was deafening. Seungmin had obviously fucked up for real, but he still didn't know what to say or do. He couldn't fix this by telling him he was sorry, he had to earn back his trust. 

“You thought you'd get away with not telling me until absolutely necessary?” Hyunjin croaked out and shook his head before turning away from Seungmin to leave.  _ Oh no, he is totally misunderstanding! And I am so bad at this. _

“No, wait, Hyunjin! I'm sorry!” Seungmin quickly went after the taller man. “Please, I want to make it up to you—” 

Before he could finish the sentence, Hyunjin slammed the backstage door and Changbin prevented Seungmin from following him. Seungmin let out a groan in despair and slapped himself against his forehead in frustration. 

“Woah there, uhh…” Changbin snatched Seungmin’s wrist before he could hurt himself more. “What happened?”

“I fucked up. Big time.” 

  
  
  


✧BC✧HJ✧JS✧

  
  
  


“Hyunjin, wait! Where are you going?” Chan called out, trying to stop Hyunjin from disappearing into the crowd without a word after the concert had just ended. Hyunjin called something back that sounded like  _ 'backstage' _ , but he kept going. Chan wanted to go after him, but he felt a hand on his shoulder. 

“Chan, wait. Let's look for Jeongin, he can get us backstage.” Minho told him calmly. 

“But what about Hyunjin? What if he gets in trouble?” Chan tried to think clearly about the situation, but honestly he didn't know what to expect. Would they let Hyunjin backstage? Would Hyunjin want to have him and Jisung there—

_ Wait. Fuck.  _ Chan wiggled his fingers to find his hands scarily empty. 

“We'll see once we find Jeongin—” Felix began, but cut himself off as Chan whipped himself around.  _ Oh no. _

“Where is Jisung?” His voice came out a lot more strained than he wanted, but he couldn’t help that his throat was closing up. He was  _ worried _ . He didn’t know if Jisung had gone with Hyunjin or not, but it didn’t look like Hyunjin was taking Jisung along with him. Chan desperately searched the crowd, but it was so busy around him, with people chatting after the concert, he couldn’t spot his friend. 

“Did you guys see where he went?” He tried to calm himself, because panicking wouldn’t help find a possibly-panicking friend, but it was hard to stop the overwhelming worry that Jisung would get lost in the crowd and have an attack or something. 

“No, I thought he was behind you.” Felix pressed his lips together in worry and Minho shook his head as well. 

“Okay, shit.” Chan cursed himself for not paying better attention to his friends, because now both of them were lost in the crowd. “I gotta go look for him. You guys can look for Jeongin!”

“Are you gonna be okay?” Minho called after him, but Chan was already on his way through the crowd, searching for Jisung and trying to will down the panic that was rising in his chest. He spotted a tight packed group of people making a fuss near an entrance, which was probably the backstage entrance.  _ Oh gosh. _

“...The rest,  _ get out _ ! I don’t have time to deal with each and every one of you!” A loud voice boomed from the entrance and Chan jumped. The group collectively groaned and slowly dispersed. He tried to spot Jisung or Hyunjin somewhere between them, but there were a lot of people. He briefly thought about asking one of them if they had seen Jisung, because he was kind of desperate, but it was too chaotic and he was kind of panicking himself.

Chan then spotted his friend’s small frame near the entrance and he stumbled through the crowd to get over there as quickly as possible, his heart pounding like he had just run a marathon or something. 

“Jisung! Jisungie!” He called out as he frantically ran over to Jisung, who whipped himself around to face Chan. Chan stumbled over and placed his hands on Jisung’s shoulders, examining his face to see if he was okay. “Oh my gosh—” He took a deep breath, trying to calm his breathing. “Are you okay? I’m sorry— I didn’t notice you were— you were gone— And—”

“ _ Chan _ ! I’m okay, calm down.” Jisung assured him, but Chan couldn’t seem to stop his heavy breathing, so he pulled the younger into a hug. 

“Thank goodness…” He felt his eyes sting. “I was  _ so _ worried, because Hyunjin— And the crowd— Are you sure you’re—?” 

Jisung squeezed him tight and shushed him. “Channie, calm down. I’m really okay.” He chuckled softly. “I was actually so focused on following Hyunjin that I didn’t even notice the crowd. It was scary for a bit when I lost sight of him, but I kept clear of too many people, so I’m really fine.” 

Chan let out a breath of relief and placed his forehead on Jisung’s shoulder, trying to relax and calm his breathing, but (too) soon, Jisung pulled out of the hug and cupped Chan’s face, looking into his eyes with a worried expression. “I’m more worried about  _ you _ , though. Are you okay? You looked like you were about to cry.”

Chan let out another shaky breath and chuckle as he nodded. “Yes, I’m fine now. I was just imagining worst case scenarios and… uhm, I don’t know what happened.” 

“Okay. Please don’t worry so much about me that you start panicking, though.” Jisung pulled his face closer and left a kiss on his forehead, and then on his nose and then two on both of his cheeks. Chan couldn’t help but blush at the sweet gesture, his skin hot where Jisung had just left a kiss and his heart was now pounding for wholly different reasons. He also felt a lot calmer now. 

“I will try not to, sorry,” he promised Jisung with a smile, hoping he wouldn’t think too much behind Chan’s warm cheeks. Chan swore he saw a tint pink to Jisung’s cheeks as well and he couldn’t resist closing his promise with a quick kiss to those cheeks. Jisung’s skin was warm. 

“Uhm.” Someone cleared their throat behind them and Chan jumped. It was a buff and short guy wearing a suit, he looked like a bouncer or something. “Is one of you two Jisung? Friend of Hyunjin?” He looked between them.

“Yes! That’s me. Is he in there?” Jisung answered.

“Yes, but I can’t let anyone backstage, so please wait until he comes back,” the guy told them. “Don’t worry, nothing bad will happen to anyone.” 

He then disappeared through the door again, just as Minho and Felix joined them. Apparently they couldn’t find Jeongin, so he was probably also still backstage. That meant that he was with Hyunjin, which was a good thing to know. 

When Hyunjin eventually came back, slamming the backstage door behind him, eyes teary and step quick to get out of here, Chan’s stomach dropped again. Jeongin quickly followed, but none of them could get Hyunjin to speak until they were out of the concert hall. 

“Hyunjin, please talk to us?” Jisung urged their tall friend, but Hyunjin only burst out in crying as he crouched on the spot. It was heart-breaking.

“He… I’ve been too naive again…” He sobbed into his hands. Chan and Jisung crouched next to him and engulfed him in a bit of a make-shift hug. 

“I— I don’t think…” Jeongin began, but he trailed off, probably unsure of what to say. Felix encouraged him to speak, though. “Seungmin really seemed to want to talk to you, too, though? He looked like he wanted to make it up to you…”

“How do I know that he doesn’t just like me because I didn’t know he was famous? How do I know that he isn’t hiding more from me? I thought— I thought we  _ had _ something...” Hyunjin shook his head as he whimpered, shaky sobs leaving his lips. Chan squeezed him a little tighter and he felt Jisung’s hand brush over his own as he caressed Hyunjin’s back. 

“You can’t know unless you try,” Chan whispered. “And that’s scary, so it’s up to you.” 

“Why don’t we go home and wash up?” Minho suggested as Felix crouched in front of Hyunjin to pat his knee and offer him a hand to stand up. Minho, Felix and Jeongin were so nice, they were really lucky to be able to stay with them until their van would be fixed, which it was. “Then you can let everything sink in and decide if you want to get out of here right now or you want to stay.”

Hyunjin stood up and they all walked back to Minho’s apartment. Chan wouldn’t have thought that the concert would be half as eventful as it had been, but here they were. He hoped that Hyunjin wouldn’t be too hurt by everything. Seungmin had seemed like such a nice person.

  
  
  


_ ✧End of chapter 4✧ _

  
  
  



	5. None of those are more important than not being an asshole to someone who did nothing to deserve it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “That's okay, thank you for still dancing with me for a while.” Felix ran a hand through Jeongin's hair before caressing his cheek, making Jeongin shiver a little. 
> 
> “Of course, Lixie.” He nodded, a shy smile tugging at the corners of his lips as he leaned into the touch. As much as he wanted to stay like this for longer, he was exhausted from working all day and all evening, so he tugged his boyfriend into his bed with him, giving him one last kiss before drifting off into dreamland.
> 
> After a while Jeongin woke up again. It was still early, because otherwise the sun would have shone more brightly through their bedroom curtains. He groaned a little in himself and tried to go back to sleep, but he heard soft thumping and muffled voices coming from below. ...Minho?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> after the concert! don't worry, things will get less angsty now !! i am a sap at heart so were getting some soft content first before resolving things
> 
> enjooy!

  
  


✧MH✧FL✧JI✧

  
  
  


“So…” Jeongin began as Felix left the bathroom after having showered and joined his boyfriend on the bed. He turned to the older and invited him to come lie beside him and Felix gladly snuggled up against him. “What did you think of the concert? Besides the whole Hyunjin thing, because that  _ sucked _ .”

“Yeah, that sucked. Uhm.” Felix pursed his lips in thought. “Other than that, I had a really good time, actually! You were right about Seungmin sounding even better live and I had a lot of fun singing and dancing along. The others danced too! You should have seen it. Chan, Hyunjin and Jisung actually knew the lyrics of  _ ‘Stay with me’ _ by heart, haha.”

Jeongin smiled as Felix excitedly told him about the joy of having heard some of his favourite songs from Seungmin and sharing that experience with friends. 

“When he sang  _ ‘A New Departure’ _ , I almost cried.” Felix wiped away a fake tear and Jeongin snickered. “Hyunjin did cry and I thought it was because he was touched as well. Seungmin was looking at him throughout the song and it felt like a sort of promise to him? I don’t know what happened, though. I just hope they’ll make up.”

“Yeah, me too,” Jeongin agreed. Seungmin had seemed devastated after Hyunjin left and even though Jeongin didn’t know the two of them very well, he did feel some sort of connection to them, felt closer to them than he would think he would feel to someone after knowing them for such a short amount of time. 

“You did a great job with the sound, by the way.” Felix smiled and patted Jeongin’s cheek fondly and Jeongin felt his cheeks heat up. His boyfriend’s compliments never failed to make him shy, even though by now he definitely should have been used to them already.

“Thanks, Lix.” He leaned forward to kiss him briefly. “I’m glad you enjoyed the concert, for the most part. I wish I could’ve danced with you.”

Felix shot up at that, a grin growing on his face. “You can still dance with me!” He scrambled off the bed and held out his hand.

“N-Now?!” Jeongin sputtered and Felix nodded. Jeongin was kind of tired and afraid of embarrassing himself because of that, but Felix was looking at him with such a bright smile, he couldn’t say no. He let out a sigh and took Felix’s hand before he let the latter pull him off of the bed and into his arms.

With one hand Felix put on a playlist, and with the other hand he intertwined his fingers with Jeongin’s. He twirled Jeongin around as he would always do when inviting Jeongin to dance with him. Jeongin giggled and he began to get in the mood for dancing (or he was just beginning to feel giddy because Felix was so cute), so he wrapped his arms around Felix’s waist and lifted him up, twirling them around.

Felix let out a yelp before bursting out in laughter as he steadied himself by wrapping his arms around Jeongin’s neck. When he leaned down to kiss him, Jeongin almost fell over in surprise. That didn’t stop him from kissing Felix back, though. 

His boyfriend wrapped his legs around his waist and they were barely dancing anymore, distracted by each other's lips. 

“Let's go to the roof, dance under the stars together,” Felix whispered against Jeongin's lips as he smiled and Jeongin melted in his arms. 

“I'm already under the stars, though.” He grinned up at his boyfriend, who gasped and leaned back. He cringed a little at his own cheesiness, but he could handle it if it was with Felix. “Your freckles are even prettier than the stars.” 

“Stop it!” Felix whined and Jeongin put him down. “You always gotta one up me in romance, huh?” 

“Says Mister Romantic himself, always inviting me to dance and taking my hand and giving me every compliment possible,” Jeongin retorted, earning himself a shy kiss on the nose. 

“Is that a no to dancing on the roof?” Felix raised his eyebrows at Jeongin, but Jeongin shook his head. 

“Too tired, sorry,” he said. 

“That's okay, thank you for still dancing with me for a while.” Felix ran a hand through Jeongin's hair before caressing his cheek, making Jeongin shiver a little. 

“Of course, Lixie.” He nodded, a shy smile tugging at the corners of his lips as he leaned into the touch. As much as he wanted to stay like this for longer, he was exhausted from working all day and all evening, so he tugged his boyfriend into his bed with him, giving him one last kiss before drifting off into dreamland.

  
  
  


After a while Jeongin woke up again. It was still early, because otherwise the sun would have shone more brightly through their bedroom curtains. He groaned a little in himself and tried to go back to sleep, but he heard soft thumping and muffled voices coming from below.  _...Minho? _

Jeongin sat up and tried to focus on the noise, but he couldn’t make out what was being said. The people who were talking sounded distressed, though. Jeongin contemplated waking Felix up, but he decided to just go and check it out himself. 

The sounds got fainter as he got up and put on some socks before going out of the apartment, but he was awake now, so he kept going, down the stairs one storey and to Minho’s apartment, but while in the stairway, he heard sounds coming from below, so he kept going down.

_ “...for everything! We won’t forget you, or Felix and Jeongin. Sorry, and bye.” _ This was Chan speaking and the closer he got to the first floor the clearer his voice got. 

_ “I really can’t convince you guys?”  _ Minho sounded exasperated and tired. 

_ Oh gosh, are they leaving already? _ Jeongin hastened his pace in the hope he could still catch them before they left, but when he got downstairs, there was only Minho, no Chan, no Jisung, no Hyunjin. 

“Are they leaving?” Jeongin hastily tapped Minho’s shoulder, sending the poor man almost flying through the roof in surprise.

“Good  _ lord _ , what the  _ hecking heck _ , Jeongin?!” Minho cursed, turning around to face him.

“Answer me!” He pleaded.

“ _ Yes _ , they’re going. Right now. I already tried to stop them, but Hyunjin—” Minho began, but Jeongin didn’t let him finish before he was already sprinting outside in his shorts and socks just to see the back of a van drive away. He slumped, disappointed that he hadn't been able to say goodbye to the three of them. 

He watched the vehicle disappear as the morning sun shone and illuminated the asphalt with a brightness that shouldn’t be possible this early. He wondered what happened that they left at the crack of dawn without saying goodbye. Maybe Hyunjin was more hurt than he thought. 

“There you are! I woke up to an empty apartment!” Felix immediately came running up to Jeongin, his hair a big morning-mess. He looked between his two friends. “What's going on? Why are you two down here?” 

  
  


✧✧✧

  
  


“I just suddenly woke up to Hyunjin packing his bags— I don't think he slept at all.” Minho sighed and ran a hand through his already messy hair, after handing over a glass of water to his upstairs neighbours as they sat down in his living room. “He was insisting that he didn't— no,  _ couldn't  _ see Seungmin again, they had to leave right away. I heard Chan and Jisung question him, but of course they eventually went along with him.” 

“Oh no…” Felix murmured, his face contorting into a scowl. He took a sip of his water and sighed. “Well, at least we have their numbers?” 

“Yeah…” Minho said, but he kind of felt like maybe Hyunjin would have a grudge against this place or something. He hoped that they would come back to visit, though. He stood up and started to clean up the mess around the sofa bed, because they left in such a hurry that the bed is still out. “I just… I feel like they left too soon.” 

“Do you think Seungmin will be able to find them?” Jeongin wondered out loud, but Minho had no idea. Obviously  _ something _ had happened between the two when they had been stuck in the elevator, so it could very well be true that they had also exchanged numbers, but Minho didn’t know for sure.

He absentmindedly pulled the sheets and pillows off the sofa bed, but he was startled by a soft  _ thump _ sounding. He frowned and his attention was drawn to a small book that was now on the floor next to the sofa. 

  
Minho crouched and picked it up, opening it to see  _ ‘Hwang Hyunjin’ _ written on the inside of the cover.  _ Huh? He forgot his book? _

“What’s that?” Felix curiously asked as he and Jeongin got up to see what Minho was browsing through. 

_ It’s a pretty nice night. Jisungie got me out of the car while Channie was asking for a nearby hotel. I went stargazing with Jisungie and Channie on the asphalt of the road in the middle of the night like idiots, but it was nice. We saw a shooting star _ — Minho quickly realized what he was reading and slapped the book close. 

“Uhh— This is Hyunjin’s diary. I think.” Minho mumbled. “I saw a page of him talking about stargazing and seeing a shooting star. It was the same night we went stargazing.” 

“Woah, that’s such a coincidence.” Felix’s eyes went wide, before he pointed at the book and simultaneously slapped Minho on his shoulder lightly. “But we gotta give this back. We gotta call them!”

Felix was right, so Minho tried calling every one of their numbers, hoping that one of them would pick up. He knew that it could be either Jisung or Chan that was driving (he reckoned Hyunijn wasn’t in the ideal mood to drive), so he tried calling Hyunjin first. Also because it was  _ his _ diary that he left behind.

There was a good chance that he wouldn’t pick up, though. Minho waited for a minute until it went over to voicemail. He left a quick message, but he still tried calling Chan, who didn’t pick up either, but before he could try calling Jisung, there was a knock on his door.

_ Huh? _ He shared a look with Jeongin and Felix, but they shrugged. Could it be the three travellers, who came back for Hyunjin’s diary? 

Another knock, more urgently this time. Minho made his way to the door, but was taken aback when he saw a guy in sunglasses and a mask in front of his door. Minho recognized him to be no one other than Seungmin, with his short friend next to him, who didn’t look happy about being here at  _ all _ .

“Hi, Minho. Sorry to disturb you, but— Please let me talk to Hyunjin?” He pleaded immediately as he removed his sunglasses and mask.

“Sorry, you just missed him. They packed up and left about an hour ago.” Minho scowled. He was unsure if he should tell Seungmin about the fact that he forgot his diary, though. Seungmin’s face immediately fell and his friend seemed to want to get him to leave, but Seungmin didn’t budge.

“Do you know where they’re going?” The singer looked a bit like a lost puppy and Minho felt bad for him.

“No, I’m sorry.” Minho shook his head. He wanted to help Seungmin, because he did want to find Hyunjin as well, but he didn’t know what to do.

“Come on, Min. Let’s go. Maybe you can try calling him later—” The short black haired friend patted Seungmin’s back, but Seungmin shook him off.

“No, Changbin. I need to fix things as soon as possible, before I lose my chance. They can’t be too far,” Seungmin said with a determination that startled Minho.

“ _ What _ ?” The friend—  _ Changbin _ hissed. “You can’t possibly be thinking of going  _ after him _ !” 

“I  _ am _ . My schedule, my image, my fame, none of those are more important than not being an asshole to someone who did nothing to deserve it!” 

Minho let those two figure things out between them for a second while he turned around to face Felix and Jeongin before having a silent conversation about what to do now. They came with a plan surprisingly quickly and Minho blessed their ability to be on the same wavelength when it was needed.

Minho turned back to Seungmin and Changbin and pointed a finger at them, speaking up and interrupting their squarrel. “If you two are going after Hyunjin,  _ we _ are coming with you.”

Both Seungmin and Changbin stopped mid-sentence, frowning at the three in the doorway. “W-What? Why?” Changbin stammered.

“We have unfinished business with them,” Jeongin stated. “They didn’t say goodbye to us.” 

“And Hyunjin forgot his dairy here,” Felix clarified. It wasn’t a very solid plan they had, but hey, no one was perfect. They’d figure out the details along the way, Minho had wanted to request a week or two off work anyway. And besides, it wasn’t like Seungmin was acting with a plan either.

“Okay, let’s go then!” Seungmin said determinedly. “Let’s reconvene in two hours to get our shit together and maybe find out which way they went.” 

“Hey—! Seungmin! You can’t just—” Changbin protested.

“I will tell Wonpil, don’t worry! We’re not leaving now, only in two hours.” Seungmin waved him off and was already walking away, a disgruntled Changbin following behind him.

Minho snickered and turned around, clapping his hands together. “You heard the man! Two hours to get our shit together and maybe find out which way they went.” 

  
  
  


✧CB✧SM✧

  
  
  


Somehow, Seungmin got what he wanted again. And Changbin somehow seemed to get tangled right into the mess. (Not that Changbin didn’t help him, he did it gladly, but sometimes Changbin wanted to keep his job.)

Right now, Changbin was driving, four others with him in the car. The  _ company _ car, because that way Wonpil would know where they were at all times. The guy who he learned was named Minho was next to him in the passenger seat, because he had a vague idea of where they would go next, as he had apparently remembered them saying it.

In the backseat were Seungmin and Felix and Jeongin. Changbin was still a bit confused about what everyone’s relationship with each other was, he thought the three were roommates, but he wasn’t sure. Jeongin worked at the concert hall, Changbin did know that, and the way Felix and Jeongin were holding hands made him think that maybe those two were an item, but he didn’t want to make assumptions.

They sat together on the dark leather seats of the company car, the only sound present was some soft chatter and the sound of the air conditioning blowing. (Thank goodness for air conditioning.) The sun filtered through the windows and Changbin was kind of warm, but when was he not?

“Hey, Bin, thank you for this,” Seungmin suddenly spoke up. Changbin grunted as a response. “I know this is way more than you signed up for, but I really appreciate that you came with me.”

“I’ll let it slide if you give me a raise,” Changbin joked and Seungmin barked out a laugh. “No, but on a serious note, I’m doing this as your friend too.”

“Thanks.” He could hear the smile in Seungmin’s voice, which was good, because he hadn’t seen the guy do as much as  _ try _ to smile in the past twelve hours. 

Suddenly Minho flinched next to him, the sound of a phone buzzing getting louder. He gasped. “Jisung is calling me!”

They all got quiet as Minho picked up the phone. “Yes?”

Changbin was focusing on the road mostly, but he could feel the tense atmosphere that hung in the car as everyone listened intently for what Minho was going to say.

“Yeah, no, I understand,” he said. “We’re actually… already on our way. Going in the general direction you guys said you’d go next.” 

Another silence. 

“Yes, with… uhm…” Minho trailed off and Changbin noticed movement next to him, Minho was turning to look at the boys on the backseat. “Do I tell him that you two are here too? Seungmin and Changbin?” He whispered.

“Yeah. Let’s not give anyone a heart attack today,” Changbin replied. “Just tell him. Or put him on speaker and I’ll tell him.” 

Changbin wasn’t fond of surprises like that and he didn’t think that Hyunjin would be in for one too. He should be able to decide for himself if he wanted to give Seungmin another chance or not.

“Yeah— I’m still here. Jeongin and Felix are here too, yes,” Minho said. “No, I’m not driving while calling, that’s actually what I wanted to say. Seungmin is here too. He came by my apartment asking for Hyunjin. It was his idea actually, to go after you guys.”

It became eerily silent, apart from Seungmin muttering something under his breath. He imagined that he was more nervous right now than before a concert, because for some reason this Hyunjin guy had that kind of effect on him. 

“Are you sure?” Minho asked and it may be Changbin’s imagination, but he thought he heard Seungmin whimper softly. “Okay, thanks. See you soon.” 

_ See you soon _ , Changbin repeated the sentence in his head. This meant that Hyunjin wasn’t opposed to seeing Seungmin and hearing him out? That was good, because the sooner this whole situation would be fixed, the better.

“They’re at a rest stop along the highway not too far from here if I’m correct,” Minho announced. 

“Hyunjin is okay with seeing me?” Seungmin’s voice was coated in relief, but also a little hesitance. 

“Yeah, I think so.” 

  
  
  


It eventually took quite a while before they found the right rest stop, even with the help of a navigation system, but after a good forty minutes they finally reached the right rest stop. There was no one around the van, so they stayed in the car for a minute, waiting for the others to approach them first. Changbin had gotten a headache from squinting his eyes and looking for a sign of a van at a rest stop, so yeah, he should definitely get a raise for putting up with this.

Although, Seungmin seemed to be having an even harder time than Changbin, because he was sweating loads and his whole posture was tense. It was quite warm in here, since it was approaching mid day, but not  _ that _ warm. 

He twisted around and reached out a hand to his friend to pat his knee. “Hey, are you okay? You sure you can handle it?” 

Seungmin sighed and ran a hand through his mildly damp hair and sighed. “Yes. I just— I don’t know why I’m this nervous? I mean, you said it. I barely know him… but why does it feel like I do? It feels… I don’t know, like I need to be there for him or something. It’s freaking weird, I can’t explain it. I’m afraid I won’t be able to explain it to Hyunjin either, I’m afraid he won’t understand— I mean, if even  _ I _ don’t understand...”

“I think you just care about him?” Felix spoke up and Seungmin sighed deeply. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to speak for you or, like, make it sound like your feelings are less complicated than they are, but… uhm, sometimes complicated feelings can come from simple ones.” 

Changbin saw Seungmin was still grimacing, he knew it was hard for him to put his feelings into words in front of others like that, but he appreciated Felix’s words, because Changbin himself didn’t think he could help a lot with this situation in particular. Come to him with non-love related problems and he’d gladly help, but not this.

“I think I might get what you’re feeling.” Jeongin then said. “I mean, your situation is different, but I mean your fear of not understanding your feelings and fearing that they won’t come across right. I— I was like that, still am like that sometimes, but I’ve also learned that if someone cares about you, they won’t misunderstand. Not if you keep trying. You don’t have to say anything with words, just show it to him in other ways. You don’t have to understand your feelings to show them.”

The whole car had gone silent and everyone was looking at Jeongin, whose cheeks gradually grew redder and redder the longer it stayed silent. If Changbin was honest, it was really cute, both how Jeongin got embarrassed and how both Felix and Minho were staring at him with a dazzling smile, and he noticed Felix sneakily taking a hold of the boy’s hand and squeezing it, making Changbin wonder if Jeongin had maybe been talking about any feelings for him, but he quickly shook the thought away, it wasn’t his business.

“Please don’t just stare at me like that. Say something!” 

“Sorry.” Seungmin shook his head, a smile tugging at his lips. “Thank you, those words mean a lot. I needed that.” 

“Good, because I think they are coming back.” Changbin pointed out the window and opened the car door to get out, Minho, Felix and Jeongin following him soon after, but Seungmin still seemed a bit hesitant, so Changbin opened the door for him and offered him a hand and a smile. “Come on, Minnie. Show him that you would never intentionally hurt him. Tell him what you told me. Tell him that your schedule, your image, your fame, none of those are more important than not being an asshole to someone who did nothing to deserve it.” 

Seungmin rolled his eyes and gave him a lopsided smile before taking his hand and letting himself get pulled out of the car. “It sounds too cheesy now that you say it,” he teased him and Changbin grumbled.

“So what? Do you think Hyunjin will mind that?” He shot back and spotted Seungmin’s ears tinting red.  _ Ha, got him _ , he thought, but then he saw that Seungmin was standing across from Hyunjin and  _ oh, that’s probably why his ears got red. _

The two were kind of staring at each other, and Changbin couldn’t really read the mood, but soon Hyunjin looked away as the three travellers greeted the three from the apartment and the latter three returned Hyunjin’s diary to him after having exchanged apologies for not saying a proper goodbye.

Hyunjin seemed hesitant to turn back to Seungmin, who was all but shaking next to Changbin, but he eventually did, and so Changbin whispered his last encouraging words to his friend and gave him a little push towards the taller boy. 

The rest decided to give the two some privacy while they would get something to eat while letting them talk. Changbin was hesitant about leaving Seungmin alone, since it was his job to not do so, but eventually he relented, because he trusted Seungmin. And he was getting quite hungry.

It turned out that Hyunjin’s friends were really nice, too, so Hyunjin himself couldn’t be that bad either. He already knew that, since Seungmin would never trust a douchebag like that, but it was comforting to have more confirmation. That, and it was nice to chat with them, he found out that they actually had a lot in common, so he forgot about his Seungmin related worries pretty soon.

  
  
  


✧BC✧HJ✧JS✧

  
  
  


Hyunjin felt his knees go weak and his hands go clammy as he watched Seungmin take another step towards him. He couldn’t believe that it was  _ his _ idea to follow him. Why? This couldn’t possibly be allowed by his agency, right? But he did have his bodyguard with him, at least, Hyunjin assumed that Changbin was some kind of bodyguard.

Seungmin was looking at him with wide eyes, making him resemble a puppy and however much Hyunjin tried, he couldn’t deny that he was affected by him. A lot more than he wanted to admit. 

“Why did you come?” Hyunjin broke the silence and averted his gaze, because it was too much. He cursed himself for being so emotional all the time. 

“I wanted to try to make things right.” Seungmin spoke breathily. “Or… at least say sorry. You don’t deserve to feel hurt because of me. I promise my intention was never to use you to feel more human or something, I just— I was a coward and I was selfish and that hurt you and I am  _ so _ sorry.” 

Hyunjin’s breath hitched and he looked up at the other, finding nothing but a genuine expression on his face. “Seungmin… I—”

“No wait.” Seungmin held his hand up. “Please let me finish. I want you to know that I mean it.”

He paused, and seemed to wait for Hyunjin’s permission, so Hyunjin nodded, his heart clenching because of Seungmin’s determination to make it up to him. It slowly felt like hope was coming back to him. 

“Let’s sit in the shade for a bit, okay?” Seungmin proposed and it made Hyunjin realize that he was indeed quite warm, so he agreed and followed the singer to sit near a tree in the grass on the opposite side of the rest stop from the highway. The trees filtered the sunlight and spots of light illuminated the singer’s face and body. 

“First of all, thank you for hearing me out.” Seungmin picked a little at the grass and Hyunjin leaned back against the tree, watching him until Seungmin flicked his eyes up and met Hyunjin’s gaze. They looked away at the same time. “I know that I hurt you, that I made you feel used and that I betrayed your trust and all, but I regret that. I regret not telling you everything while you were so open with me. I regret it so much. I really do, and I know saying that won’t make it better, but I do want you to know that I meant it when I kissed you in the elevator that time.”

Hyunjin felt his cheeks heat up at the mention of their kiss and he brought his hand up to his face to cool it down a bit. He didn’t know what to think, still, because Seungmin sounded so genuine. He didn’t want to end up hurt again, though. “...You did?” 

“Yes. I’ve… You were the first one I kissed since I started my career as a singer over two years ago, actually,” Seungmin confessed and Hyunjin looked at him again to see him scratch his neck bashfully. “I… Right before I met you, I realized that I hadn’t been too kind to myself with my work ethic. I hadn’t been focusing on making  _ real _ friends, only acquaintances and contacts, but then I got a bodyguard— Changbin, who I actually went to school with and he was actually being a great friend to me—”

Seungmin abruptly stopped speaking and Hyunjin realized that he was staring, so he quickly looked around a bit, trying to be casual. “Sorry, I don’t know why I’m telling you all this.”

“No, it’s okay.” Hyunjin looked back at Seungmin. He was actually quite interested, because Seungmin hadn’t told him about this part of his life yet, and listening to Seungmin speak was somehow soothing. “Go on. If you want.” 

“Oh, okay.” Seungmin let out a half breath half chuckle and a small smile grew on his face, which made Hyunjin feel weak all over again, his resolve to make Seungmin earn his trust back fragile and crumbling. “Well, so, Changbin was being a great friend to me and he really helped me open up a bit more, so when I met you… I wasn’t afraid, I guess? I’m not sure how to explain it.”

“Moral of the story is that I meant it when I kissed you, you made me feel comfortable and helped me open up, just like Changbin, but you… I don’t know, but there’s just something about you that makes me want to be there with you, for you. The thought of having hurt you and maybe never seeing you again…” Seungmin trailed off, not finishing the sentence, but Hyunjin got the message. He was hurt, yes, he felt like shit for the past day, but it was surprising how fast he seemed to get over it by just listening to Seungmin explain himself now.

Right now, he felt more hurt seeing that Seungmin regretted his actions this much than he was about Seungmin not telling him about his career as a singer. 

“I’m sorry—” “I just wanted—” They started at the same time, both of them letting out a giggle and Hyunjin felt his heart flutter a bit and he felt lighter in general. He motioned for Seungmin to speak first.

“Okay. I just wanted to get all of this off my chest. You don’t have to forgive me, I just wanted to… maybe make you feel a bit happier?” Seungmin said hesitantly. “And  _ maybe _ up my chances to ever see you again a bit.”

Hyunjin let out a scoff and Seungmin knitted his brows together in confusion. “I thought  _ I _ was the dramatic one…” 

Seungmin let out a laugh and his face grew red. It was cute. 

“I was just about to apologize for being so emotional and overreacting. I can be a lot to handle sometimes, but you’ve come all the way here for me, and… I feel flattered.” Hyunjin told him and Seungmin gaped at him. “I was acting without thinking, my emotions taking over and I didn’t give you a fair chance, so…” 

He trailed off, taking a moment to really think about this. He had talked to Chan and Jisung the whole morning already, getting everything out of his system and after he found out that Seungmin was coming to see him he had another hearty talk with his friends about possible ways this could go.    
Seungmin apologizing and Hyunjin being actually ready to forgive him was a scenario that had come up in their discussion, but Hyunjin had been hesitant, albeit hopeful for that outcome. He shouldn’t go too fast, though, shouldn’t let his feelings take over again.

He looked at Seungmin, who was looking all over Hyunjin’s face, a glint of hope shimmering in his eyes as he waited patiently for Hyunjin to finish speaking. How could he not give him another chance? When he came all the way here to apologize, without any expectations.

“I want to give you another chance.” Hyunjin stated and Seungmin perked up. “But… But only if we take it slow.”

“Of course!” Seungmin immediately agreed, leaning a little closer to Hyunjin. “That’s what I was thinking, too. Thank you, Hyunjin. I— I appreciate it a lot.”

“Don’t thank me so much.” Hyunjin huffed and waved him off. “As I said, I was kind of overreacting. It was just a misunderstanding.” 

“Okay.” The smile that grew on Seungmin’s face was dazzling and Hyunjin couldn’t help but mirror the expression and pull Seungmin into a hug to squeeze out all of the relief he was feeling. Seungmin let out a small squeak, but returned the hug eagerly. It made Hyunjin feel warm again. 

“So, what… What do we do now?” He asked Seungmin, a blush creeping up his face as he thought about how he would phrase his next words. “Because, uhm, as I said, I would like to give you another chance. And I didn’t necessarily mean that as friends  _ only _ .” 

“Well, I have two more stops to go where I’m going to have a concert, so if you want I can get you and Chan and Jisung tickets and stuff,” Seungmin proposed and Hyunjin took a moment to think about it. He’d have to discuss that with Chan and Jisung first, he thought, but before he could voice his thoughts, Seungmin spoke up again. “You can think about it! My next concert is in a week.”

“I will. And I’ll call you in the meantime,” Hyunjin promised with a smile, which was returned bashfully by Seungmin. “And I would love it if you would come visit me if you have time.”

“I’ll make sure I free up my schedule for you.” Seungmin grinned and tried a wink, which turned out more like an uneven blink, but Hyunjin appreciated it, even though he laughed. Hyunjin then stood up and offered Seungmin his hand to help him up.

“Let’s tell the rest?” 

  
  
  


✧MH✧FL✧JI✧

  
  
  


“You have  _ got _ to be kidding me!” Changbin wailed, startling Jisung as he was just climbing into the van, making Chan reach out to stabilize him  _ immediately _ . Minho snickered at the sight before he went over to see what Changbin was complaining about. “A  _ flat tyre _ ?! This is the company car!”

The bodyguard slumped against the car, but a little smile grew on Minho’s face, because this was where he could help. He gently pushed Changbin aside, earning a grunt, before squatting and examining the tyre. “Let me see… Do you have another tyre?”

“No. This is the company car.” Seungmin pressed his lips together and gave Minho a sheepish look. Changbin let out another whine. 

“I’m going to lose my job,” he groaned. 

“Man, another case of car troubles?” Jeongin sighed. “Minho your wish-upon-a-star is a bad influence on other people.” 

Minho just laughed as he examined the flat tyre, it seemed like a bit of a bad tyre, so he also decided to examine the other tyres as he was going.

“Wait…” Chan sounded.

“Wish-upon-a-star?” About five people repeated the phrase at the same time and it took a  _ lot _ to make Minho look away from a car with car trouble, but this did the job. He looked up to see everyone looking at each other, dumb-founded. 

“Wait a second. Are we all talking about the same shooting star a week ago?” Felix looked around the group for clarification. “Did we all make a wish that night or am I reading this wrong?”

_ That would be an absolutely bonkers coincidence, _ Minho thought, but the way everyone’s eyes widened and looks of disbelief were shared made it seem like Felix was right. A chorus of questions erupted and everyone was speaking through each other so Minho decided to just focus on finishing his job. 

The tyre was just bad compared to the rest, so he decided to call a coworker to bring him a tyre while the rest was discussing their wishes. It was so weird to think about the fact that precisely the eight of them had made a wish the same night, after having seen the same shooting star. 

Furthermore, it was precisely the ones other than Minho and his upstairs neighbours who were affected by car troubles. It also was strange that Minho somehow felt more drawn to these people? It was a weird feeling, but it spurred on decisions like inviting three travellers to stay at his apartment until their van would be fixed, or agree on joining a singer and his bodyguard to go after those travellers.

  
  


While they waited for Younghyun, Minho’s coworker, to arrive with a tyre, they sat on the grass in the shade and just relaxed together, chatting about everything and nothing. Chan, Hyunjin and Jisung  _ could _ leave if they wanted, but they didn’t. They said they wanted to say goodbye properly this time and not leave them with a flat tyre.

When Younghyun eventually arrived, it seemed like it hadn’t been that long since he had called him, but Younghyun was complaining that he couldn’t find the rest stop. Minho assured him that he would change the tyre, just because he felt like it.

“Hey, wait!” Younghyun suddenly spoke up, and Minho looked up to see what was going on. His coworker was looking at Seungmin with wide eyes. “You’re Kim Seungmin, right?” 

Seungmin seemed a bit startled, but he confirmed. Minho looked away again, he knew that Younghyun wouldn’t do any harm. He also wasn’t the type to get starstruck by celebrities, so he wondered why he brought it up.

“Your manager is Kim Wonpil! Right?” He said and now Minho understood. Seungmin had probably nodded, or Younghyun just continued. “He’s a friend of mine, so yeah. Oh, and can you tell him to answer my messages more often? I know he’s busy with you and stuff, but, you know, I’d appreciate it.” 

Seungmin and Changbin laughed. “Okay, I’ll tell him.” 

  
  
  


“Hey, thank you guys for going after us today.” Hyunjin smiled as he thanked everyone after the company car was fixed, fidgeting with his hands as if he was itching to do something, like, hug them or something. He was also squinting against the harsh late afternoon sunlight, which was reflecting off the van and the car. “I appreciate it. Sorry for not saying a proper goodbye, but I’m glad we got to be together today. Now I still have a chance at love...”

Hyunjin looked up at the sky and sighed, making everyone laugh and making Seungmin look away, his face growing a little redder. He was obviously exaggerating, but it seemed like there was a hint of hope in there, both with Hyunjin and Seungmin. 

“Pfft, you’re welcome.” Minho waved him off and earned himself a small shove from Jeongin. “No, really I enjoyed it, too. We’ll see you guys around.” 

“Definitely.” Jisung agreed and Seungmin nodded as well, before Felix spread his arms and motioned everyone to come for a goodbye hug. Minho let out a laugh, but he joined the hug, just like everyone else. It was a goodbye hug, but that didn’t mean this was goodbye for them. Minho felt like goodbye wasn’t in store for them anytime soon.

  
  
  


_ ✧End of chapter 5✧ _

  
  
  



	6. There’s no one I’d rather have these feelings for than you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You know guys, now that I have someone that I’m interested in dating, you two can tease me about it,” Hyunjin began as his laughter died down. “But when are you two going to do something about your love life?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> last chapter! the resolve <3
> 
> enjooyyy

  
  


✧BC✧HJ✧JS✧

  
  
  


“Seungmin’s song!” Hyunjin announced loudly when the first chords of  _ ‘Stay with me’ _ started playing, startling Jisung and, judging from the squeak he heard from the backseat, it also startled Chan. Hyunjin blindly reached around to turn up the volume while laughing at his friends, but he was terribly missing the knob, so Jisung decided to help him and shove his hand away to do it for him. 

“Get your big ass hand away! Let me turn up your lover boy for you!” Jisung complained as Hyunjin was obviously trying to sabotage his attempts. He successfully managed to stun him by making him laugh even harder and he grinned smugly, but also happily, because it was nice to make him laugh.

Chan was also snickering behind him, so his complaints had been doubly successful. 

“You know guys, now that  _ I _ have someone that I’m interested in dating, you two can tease me about it,” Hyunjin began as his laughter died down. “But when are  _ you two _ going to do something about your love life?” 

“Hyunjin…” Chan whined as Jisung felt his cheeks heat up at the mention of his own love life. He was curious what Chan was going to say. “I don’t need—”

“ _ Shush _ !” Hyunjin cut him off and raised one hand off the steering wheel. “Channie, I’m not saying this out of nowhere and you know it.” 

Jisung’s heart jumped into his throat at the implication that Chan had some sort of love life to do something about, anxiety flooding his chest. But deep down, he also knew that Hyunjin wouldn’t say this, knowing that Jisung liked Chan, if he also knew that Chan liked someone else. 

_ Does this mean that Chan… does Chan like  _ me _?  _ He thought back on that one night Chan had asked him if he thought that one of them liking him would ruin anything.  _ He was asking because of  _ me _? _ It could make sense, if Jisung allowed himself to think about the possibility of Chan liking him for a moment, because sometimes the smile that Chan gave him made him have exactly that hope, the hope that his feelings were maybe mutual. 

That realization didn’t make his heart beat slow at all, though. If anything, it did the opposite. He had only fully realized his own feelings for Chan not too long ago, so it was still kind of…  _ scary _ wasn’t the right word, because nothing was scary when he was with Chan. And so he willed himself to turn around and face Chan.

He met eyes with his friend, the other’s cheeks dusted a light pink that could have come from the sun but something in the way Chan looked back at him made Jisung think that that might not be the case this time. Jisung himself was probably not doing any better, considering how hot he felt.

“Well, are you two just going to stare at each other or are you going to  _ do _ something?” Hyunjin called out, before blindly patting Jisung’s leg. “You two have been incredibly kind to  _ me _ the past few days, I think it’s time you do something for yourself today.” 

Hearing Hyunjin say that made Jisung feel quite confident all of a sudden, a burst of energy rushing through him as he nodded and gave Hyunjin a quick smooch on the cheek before unbuckling his seatbelt and turning around to climb over the console to join Chan in the back.

“Why are you giving  _ me _ a kiss—” Hyunjin complained, wiping his face before he cut himself off and started cackling again when he saw what Jisung was doing. He slapped Jisung’s behind, making him stumble and making Chan reach out for him. 

The older gripped Jisung’s upper arms and his eyes were wide in something like fear. “What are you doing, ‘Sung?! You can’t just—” 

“I’m just joining you, it’s not a big deal, I’ll survive,” Jisung assured him as he almost ended up doing splits while climbing over. Eventually he plopped down and made a show of putting his seatbelt back on, to please Chan. “There. Safe and sound.”

Chan rolled his eyes and pulled Jisung into a choke hold before ruffling his hair. 

“Agh!” Jisung resisted, but he didn’t mind it too much. When Chan let him go he tried to flatten his hair a bit before reaching out to execute a counter attack on Chan’s curls, which was, in hindsight, a bad idea, because it spurred Chan on to start tickling Jisung and that meant that he was defeated, because Chan knew all of his ticklish spots. 

“Ch— Chan! Stop! I came here to ta— to talk to you!” Jisung whined as he thrashed about, kicking at the older’s shins (not too hard) while clutching his stomach to protect himself. Chan was wheezing of laughter and he wasn’t even the one dying of a tickle attack. Tears of laughter formed in the corners of Jisung’s eyes. “I give— give up! Truce!  _ Please _ .”

“Okay, sorry.” Chan snickered and Jisung immediately forgave him because he looked so  _ cute _ with his eyes all scrunched up, dimples on full display. He really wanted to just squish Chan’s cheeks and kiss him silly right  _ now _ , but he had to show some self restraint and first make sure that Chan actually wanted that. 

“What did you want to talk about?” Chan’s expression softened a little and it made Jisung forget everything he wanted to talk about.

“Uhm,” he stuttered and he lowered his voice a little. “About what Hyunjin just said.” 

Chan’s eyes widened ever so slightly and Jisung felt his hope fading a bit, but he promised himself to see this through and tell him, no matter what. Chan’s face went neutral and he asked, “What about it?”

“I… uhm…” Jisung was scouring his brain for ideas on how to handle this, not wanting to wing it, but then again, he was quite confident in his improvisation skills, and speaking always went smoother if he wasn’t thinking.  _ Okay, here goes nothing _ . “Do you remember that afternoon the van started making weird noises before it broke down?”

“Yeah…?” Chan tilted his head in question, probably not sure where Jisung was going with this, and neither was Jisung, but that was the point of improvisation.

“We went to check out what was going on and Hyunjin went to sit in that field to relax,” Jisung began, thinking back on that day fondly. “You carried me there and assured me that it wasn’t me who broke the car before you got all excited about having a picnic and stuff.”

Chan let out a snort at the mention, his ears colouring red at the tips. It made Jisung smile thinking back on how happy Chan had been that day, for no particular reason other than that he saw him and Hyunjin smile. 

“You were so smiley at that moment,” Jisung continued. “You were just going to get some food, nothing special, but at that moment I kind of realized what the severity was of my feelings for you. I mean, you’re my best friend for life, so of course I love you, but I realized that there was a part of my love for you that had steadily grown over the years, which I hadn’t noticed before.” 

Chan inhaled sharply, breathing out his name and Jisung quickly reached forward to take a hold of his hands. He had to finish his confession. “Truth is, I really like you and it’s okay if you don’t feel the same, but somehow I feel like that isn’t the case, considering how Hyunjin was acting.”

Hyunjin let out a snort from behind the wheel and Chan’s expression cleared up, a big and dazzling smile growing on his face as he looked between Hyunjin and Jisung. “You’re right.” He nodded excitedly and leaned forward to pull Jisung into a bone-crushing hug.

“Gosh, I was so afraid of my feelings— I… I have liked you for an embarrassingly long time, but… I never dreamed of you returning my feelings. And I tried to get over you so many times, but I failed every time.” Chan’s voice was barely above a whisper and Jisung could hear that he was tearing up a little, so he squeezed him a little tighter. “Thank you for telling me. There’s no one I’d rather have these feelings for than you.” 

Jisung felt his own eyes beginning to sting as he heard Chan speak, so he pressed his nose against Chan's shoulder.  _ He has liked me for an embarrassingly long time…?  _ He'd definitely have to ask Chan all about that later, but now he just wanted to hug him for an hour more while he ignored the question forming in his mind if he might be in love with Chan. Perhaps he was, but he'd deal with that later. 

“You two are so cute…” Hyunjin whispered, making both Chan and Jisung laugh a little. Chan then pulled a little out of the hug and cocked his head to the driver's seat, mouthing something to Jisung, who nodded in agreement to the plan.  _ 3...2...1... _

“Thank you Hyunjin, we love you!” They both said as they turned to their friend, who let out a yelp. 

“Oh my goodness, don't scare me like that while I'm driving!” He complained. “Go kiss each other or something, I know you guys are grateful already. No need to thank me.” 

Jisung turned back to face Chan, who smiled bashfully, his eyes glistening with the silent question of if they were going to follow Hyunjin’s suggestion. He wanted to ask Chan for permission to kiss him, but his thoughts grew incoherent as he lost himself in the other's eyes, so he just raised his hands, placing his fingers on Chan's jaw lightly. 

Chan's hands were still on Jisung’s waist from the hug and the grip only helped grounding Jisung, giving him courage to lean in and watch Chan's eyes flutter close before he let their noses brush against each other. They were so close now that a small bump in the road would be enough to let their lips touch, but Jisung let himself enjoy their proximity for a second or two before he placed a hesitant kiss on Chan's lips. He swiped his tongue over his lower lip unconsciously as he backed off a little and watched with still lidded eyes how the corners of Chan's lips twitched up into a smile. 

Jisung dragged his thumb along Chan's jawline slowly as they rested their foreheads against each other. Sooner rather than later Chan pressed another firm kiss to Jisung’s lips, squeezing his waist a little while trying to pull him closer than their seat belts allowed. Jisung tilted his head to the side to allow for a better angle and  _ gosh _ , kissing Chan like that felt like eating chocolate cake after a long day of driving around in the summer heat. Or something like that. It was  _ great _ . 

When Chan pulled back, his cheeks were coloured a soft pink and his lips were a little red. He looked very pretty like this, but Jisung couldn’t admire his friend for too long because he already closed the gap again, crossing his arms around Chan’s neck to pull him impossibly closer. 

Chan squeezed Jisung’s waist and Jisung let out a soft gasp, which Chan used as an opportunity to deepen the kiss. He felt his whole body heat up, from the tips of his ears to the tips of his fingers as he curled his toes and sighed in content. This was even better than chocolate cake. 

And maybe they were kind of getting lost in each other, kissing as if they didn’t have all the time in the world to do this. That was one of the many benefits of being in love with your best friend, they were already used to being together all the time, but Jisung felt like they could catch up a little on the time they lost not realizing or not confessing their feelings.

When Chan let out a soft whimper, Hyunjin cleared his throat, so they parted for real now. Chan let out an awkward chuckle and averted his gaze, so Jisung left him a final kiss on his cheek to let him know he enjoyed it. 

“Sorry for interrupting, you guys seemed to be enjoying it, but, uhm…” Hyunjin let out a chuckle. “Please don’t forget that I’m here? You know, so uhm, keep it light.” 

“Sorry Hyunnie.” Jisung laughed. “We got a little carried away, but yeah, I was  _ definitely _ enjoying it.”

“M-Me too,” Chan breathed out as he cooled down his overheating cheeks and ears. “But we’ll keep it light for now, don’t worry.” He smiled at Jisung before leaning forward to place a soft kiss on the corner of his mouth, making him smile broadly.

“Yeah, we have all the time in the world.”

  
  
  


✧CB✧SM✧

  
  
  


“ _ There’s no end to us if it’s with you _ !” Seungmin sang the last line of the bridge with all of his passion left, making sure to send Hyunjin a sneaky smile. He raised his hand in preparation for the last chorus. “Everyone, sing along!”

The audience all raised their hands along with Seungmin, and he was surprised at how well he could hear people singing along with the last chorus of  _ ‘A New Departure’ _ . It was his last song for tonight, but it was always a lot of fun to sing together with the audience. 

After the song ended, he bowed deeply one last time and waved everyone goodbye— actually, not everyone. He supposed that Hyunjin, Chan and Jisung would come backstage like last time, or rather, that Changbin would let them backstage like last time. Either way, he was looking forward to seeing them again.

In between his concerts he had spoken to Hyunjin and his friends quite a lot, after practice or in the car with Changbin, but nothing beat seeing them in real life.

He thanked the staff of the concert hall for everything and listened to Wonpil’s remarks before washing his face and getting himself a towel to give to Hyunjin later, because he had seen him sweating in the audience. And soon enough, he heard Changbin call him.

“Seungminnie! There are some people for you!” He called and Seungmin immediately went over to him, planning to throw the towel into Hyunjin’s face first thing, but when he saw them, he froze.

“Minho?!” He exclaimed, a big smile forming on his face. “Jeongin, Felix? I didn’t know you guys came! I didn’t see you in the audience!”

Jeongin let out a laugh. “Yeah, we were all the way in the back.”

“But of course we came, it’s your last concert,” Felix said, already opening his arms to hug him. It turned into a group hug pretty quickly and Seungmin felt himself tear up a little, so he just thanked them by hugging them. 

“You could’ve asked me for better tickets, though!” He told them, but he got laughed at. 

“You can’t exploit your power too much, Seungmin!” Changbin told him with a soft punch. “Wonpil will lecture you.” 

“That’s right, getting to see you backstage is already a privilege,” Jeongin agreed. And maybe it was the last-concert-blues, but he felt really touched, seeing everyone right now. 

They all pulled out of the group hug and Seungmin quickly threw his towel into Hyunjin’s face to distract everyone from his probably flushed face. “Here.” 

Hyunjin laughed and thanked him before wiping his face. The eight of them caught up with each other a little as they sat together in Seungmin’s changing room, just everything that had happened the past week, because all of them had been speaking pretty often. It was an unusual way to spend the time after a concert, but Seungmin liked it.

After a while Hyunjin came to sit a little closer to him and leaned his head on Seungmin’s shoulder before letting out a sigh in content. It still made Seungmin’s stomach flip when Hyunjin did this, but then again, they weren’t officially together yet unlike Chan and Jisung or Felix and Jeongin, so he still had an excuse.

“Hey,” Hyunjin greeted him with a cute smile. 

“Hey.” 

“You know, I’ve been enjoying spending time with you whenever you’re free, even though it’s not that often.” Hyunjin kept his voice a little low, but Seungmin could still hear him loud and clear above the background chatter. “So, I thought we could maybe arrange an official date soon? Like, I’ll plan something nice and all, if you have time for me.”

Seungmin couldn’t help but smile.  _ Gosh yes, _ he wanted to say, but he didn’t want to seem too keen.  _ ‘Do you think Hyunjin would mind?’  _ was what Changbin would tell him, and he wouldn’t, but whatever.

Hyunjin made a questioning sound and Seungmin remembered to answer. “Yes! Of course. The tour’s over, so I’m sure I can make time for you. I would love to go on a date with you.” 

“Great! Leave the planning to me.” Hyunjin sat up and beamed at him and Seungmin really wanted to kiss him, but he didn’t know if that was out of line, so he kept it at a smile. After that, Hyunjin placed a little kiss on his nose before resting his forehead against Seungmin’s. It filled Seungmin’s chest with warmth and content.

He then raised his hand to place on Hyunjin’s cheek as a silent question if it was okay to close the remaining distance. The way Hyunjin slightly tilted his head probably meant that it was okay, so Seungmin placed a brief kiss on his lips.

Hyunjin smiled and returned the gesture shyly before he snuggled up against him again. Seungmin left a last kiss on the top of his head, ignoring the heat that was creeping up his neck, ears and cheeks, as well as ignoring some of the others who saw them and were wiggling their brows at them.

“You know, Hyunjin,” Seungmin began and Hyunjin made a sound to show he was listening. “Do you remember that time I told you what my wish was?” 

“Yeah, you wished for your habit to hide in bathrooms to stop,” Hyunjin cheekily answered and Seungmin hit him softly. Hyunjin laughed and apologized. “Just kidding, you wished that you could handle your fame and make music for a long time,” Hyunjin answered more seriously. “What about it?” 

“I think my wish came true.” He said with a smile, looking around in his dressing room. Hyunjin looked back at him for a second and the glint in his eyes told Seungmin that he knew what he meant. That shooting star brought all of them together, and they didn’t know each other for longer than a month, but it felt like this bond would be something that would last.

_ The faint light that’s just a second ahead _

_ Makes me want to believe in the future _

_ Looking at the same moon, counting shooting stars _

_ Each wish that we put up that day is carried along with our dreams _

_ Let’s try to open the door that was still locked _

_ We’ll meet again by chance one day, because we have the bond that we made _

_ For instance, no matter how much we are separated _

_ There’s no end to us if it’s with you _

  
  
  


_ ✧The End✧ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys, thank you for reading! <3  
>   
> i know that it sometimes takes a lot of energy to come up with a good thing to comment, but don't feel any pressure to leave a Good Comment, i appreciate any comment, even if it's only 'thx' or 'enjoyed this' or 'sdjkfklsdjklf', it makes me happy :D  
>   
> anyway i hope everyone has a nice day and i hope that this fic could somehow make you laugh or make you feel a little happy for a moment!  
>   
> take care everyone <3  
>   
> you can find me on:  
> [Tumblr](https://skz-vla.tumblr.com)  
> And on [twitter](https://twitter.com/kersenvla) if you're interested!  
> <3


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